In a recent ruling by the federal court in Los Angeles, California, a Chinese woman has been sentenced to prison and fined for sending millions of parcels with counterfeit postage, causing substantial losses. The defendant, Lijuan “Angela” Chen, a 53-year-old Chinese woman residing in Walnut, California, was found guilty of mailing over 90 million packages with fake postage from January 2020 to May 2023, resulting in a loss of over $150 million in government revenue.
Federal officials revealed in court that if the timeframe is extended from November 2019 to May 2023, the total number of parcels with counterfeit postage sent or arranged by Chen and her associates would exceed 34 million. Chen had previously admitted to federal conspiracy, forgery, and counterfeiting of postage stamps in April 2024.
On Thursday, the court sentenced Chen to two years and six months in prison. Additionally, she was ordered to pay over $158 million in restitution, and properties including 12 residences, 4 certificates of deposit, and 6 insurance policies under her name were seized.
Prosecutors disclosed that Chen and her husband, Chuanhua “Hugh” Hu, jointly owned and operated a parcel transport company in the City of Industry, providing shipping services for Chinese cross-border e-commerce wanting to send goods within the US at lower postal rates.
Documents submitted to the court by prosecutors revealed that the majority of postage labels used by their company were counterfeit, often featuring “smart barcode data” recycled from previous shipments. After receiving customer parcels, the company affixed transport labels showing paid postage and then handed them over to the US postal service for delivery nationwide.
It was noted that the logistics business was previously managed by Chen’s husband, Hu, who fled to China shortly after being questioned by postal inspectors in November 2019. Since then, both continued researching methods to counterfeit postage labels and evade law enforcement scrutiny. Meanwhile, Chen remained in the US managing multiple warehouses used for parcel shipments.
As of 2024, Hu remains a federal fugitive facing charges of conspiracy to defraud, possession of counterfeit securities, forgery, and counterfeiting of postage stamps, according to the US authorities.