Two Indian-Americans defraud US Postal Service of Rs 110 crore

Two Indian-Americans, owners of a bulk mailing company based in Chicago, have been charged with defrauding the US Postal Service (USPS) of at least $16 million (Rs 110 crore). Yogesh Patel (58) and Arvind Lakkamsani (57), owners of Prodigy Mailing Service, defrauded USPS by using unlawful means to steal money from the US government organisation.

The two have been accused of forging documents and secretly using an official date stamp to fraudulently authenticate payment of postage for more than 80 million pieces of mail, according to criminal charges filed by the US Attorney's Office in Chicago, as per a report by lastly.com.

Although the charges have been pressed now, the illegal acts, according to the charges, were committed between 2010-2015. Prodigy Mailing Service, the company owned by the two accused, had two clients who required bulk mailing service and these clients were given millions of dollars to pay for the postage of the bulk mail. Instead, the duo maintained a key fraudulently to a postal service mail unit, which was located inside Prodigy's facility. They then used the key to secretly access an official date - stamp without the US Postal Service’s knowledge or approval.

Patel and Lakkamsani were not alone in the crime - they conspired with a third person David Gargano. The trio fraudulently made USPS deliver multiple bulk mailings without any payment. To make their plan successful, the trio even forged the signature of a USPS clerk. The signature was used on verification forms and they also used an official postal service date stamp.

The two have been accused of mail fraud, which is punishable with

up to 20 years of a prison sentence in the US.