Dec
9
GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — The first thing Marvin Vinson noticed when he returned home from visiting relatives at Thanksgiving was his downed mailbox.
There was no note on the door, no phone message.”You would think someone would have the courtesy to take responsibility,” he said.
Vinson was curious about who caused the damage. Luckily, his home security camera captured it all. Read More
Nov
16
A Watertown NY city carrier has pleaded guilty to eavesdropping on his coworkers:
John L. Sullivan, 50, of 1039 Bronson St., pleaded guilty to attempted eavesdropping. Mr. Sullivan, a U.S. Postal Service employee, was charged in July with placing a device in a postal vehicle so that he could listen in on a private conversation at the Watertown Post Office, 232 Commerce Drive. He was subsequently sentenced to a one-year conditional discharge and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service.
Read more: Watertown Daily Times.
Oct
9
President Obama nominated David S. Shapira, executive chairman of Giant Eagle (a supermarket chain headquartered i Pittsburgh), to the board of governors of the United States Postal Service, the White House announced on Wednesday.
Shapira has been in his current position with Giant Eagle for two years. He was CEO and chairman from 1980 to 2012 and served as president from 2005 to 2012. He is a trustee of Oberlin College and Carnegie Mellon University, director of EQT Corp. and a member of the advisory board of Aquatech International.
He previously served on the boards of the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and is a former director of Mellon Bank Corp.
Read more: Giant Eagle executive chairman nominated to Postal Service board of governors | TribLIVE.
Aug
8
The last collection times at nearly half of the post boxes in Britain have been brought forward to as early as nine in the morning by Royal Mail.
Currently, the boxes are emptied after 4pm, but Royal Mail has moved the times to between 9am and 3pm as part of a restructuring.
The changes affect 50,000 of the national mail organisation’s 115,000 post boxes.A steep decline in the numbers of letters being sent means many of the country’s post boxes “no longer covering their costs”, Royal Mail said.
Read more: Last post moved to as early as 9am at nearly half of Britain’s post boxes – Telegraph.
Aug
6
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Brian Kim, 38, of Fairfax, Virginia, pleaded guilty today to defrauding the U.S. Postal Service by counterfeiting and selling approximately $76,000 in postage stamps at two packaging centers he owned and operated in northern Virginia.
Dana J. Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; and Gary Barksdale, Inspector in Charge of the Washington Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, made the announcement after the plea was accepted by U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton.
Kim pleaded guilty to a criminal information containing one count of mail fraud. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison when he is sentenced on Nov. 7, 2014. Kim also has agreed to pay restitution in the amount of $76,000, representing the total amount of illicit gains from the fraud.
In a statement of facts filed with the plea agreement, Kim admitted that from January to October 2013, he counterfeited postal stamps that had been originally printed on a USPS-authorized postage meter, and he then affixed those stamps to packages and letters that customers brought to his packaging centers. Neither the customers who purchased the stamps nor the USPS employees who picked up the packages were aware of Kim’s scheme.
Kim’s packaging centers were located in Fairfax and Arlington, Virginia. On one representative day (Aug. 12, 2013), Kim caused the mailing of letters and packages bearing 80 counterfeit stamps, with a total value of $395.70. On Oct. 15, 2013, postal inspectors seized approximately $23,974.59 worth of counterfeit stamps while executing search warrants at Kim’s businesses.
This case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney William E. Johnston and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kosta S. Stojilkovic are prosecuting the case.
Read more: USDOJ: US Attorney’s Office – Eastern District of Virginia.