Levette J. Douglas received a 27-month-prison sentence at a U.S. District Court for making insurance claims for packages that were falsified as lost or damaged. She pleaded guilty last October to a charge of conspiracy to commit mail fraud.

According to the Department of Justice:

As part of the plea agreement, Douglas agreed to $164,859 in criminal forfeiture and restitution.

According to the government’s evidence, from April 2010 to July 2013, Douglas and her co-conspirators submitted false claims to the Postal Service for allegedly damaged or lost parcels.  As part of this scheme, Douglas and others purchased insurance for approximately 325 parcels that were sent through the mail.  They later falsely claimed that the parcels were damaged or lost, often submitting forged or fictitious documents to support their claims.

For example, on one occasion, Douglas submitted a false affidavit purporting to be from a postal letter carrier in support of a claim that a parcel was not delivered. The affiant, allegedly a postal letter carrier with the initials M.M., stated that she had not delivered any parcels to the recipient for several months. The affiant also provided a phone number in case there were questions.  That phone number was Douglas’s phone number.  In fact, the parcel in question was delivered and the recipient signed a delivery receipt.

As a final part of this scheme, Douglas also mailed to the Postal Service’s accounting department forged internal postal forms purporting to be from Postal Service employees verifying the false claims. In total, the Postal Service paid $164,859 based on these false claims.