A Chinese woman in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County recently pleaded guilty to postal fraud involving counterfeit postage and causing over $150 million in losses to the United States Postal Service (USPS). A sentencing hearing is scheduled for August.
According to the Central District of California U.S. Attorney’s Office, 51-year-old Lijuan “Angela” Chen from Walnut City admitted to charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States and counterfeit postage, each carrying a maximum sentence of 5 years in federal prison.
Chen was arrested in May 2023 and has been in federal custody since then. She confessed that from November 2019 to May 2023, both she and her co-defendant, 51-year-old Chuanhua “Hugh” Hu, owned and operated a parcel transport company in the City of Industry providing transportation services for a Chinese logistics firm, utilizing USPS for shipping. After learning of a law enforcement investigation into his use of counterfeit postage in November 2019, Hu fled back to mainland China.
However, their operations did not cease. Hu manufactured fake postage stamps known as NetStamps by printing replicated labels to fraudulently send packages without payment. NetStamps are approved by USPS for printing postage on specific adhesive paper.
Starting from 2020, Chen and Hu received packages from Chinese suppliers and others, affixing fraudulently labeled transportation tags displaying paid postage, which were then sent via USPS across the United States. Some tags even included recycled “smart barcode data” from previously mailed packages to falsely indicate postage had been paid for the shipped items.
Evidence revealed that on October 25, 2022, Chen and Hu shipped 4,779 packages through USPS, with several bearing counterfeit USPS Priority Mail labels.
From January 2020 to May 2023, Chen and Hu purposely mailed over 34 million packages with counterfeit postage transportation labels, resulting in over $150 million in losses to the USPS.
U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada stated that the defendants’ actions caused significant losses to the USPS and emphasized his office’s commitment to holding fraudsters accountable and seeking justice for victims nationwide.
As part of a plea agreement, Chen agreed to the seizure of funds from her bank accounts, insurance policies, and real estate properties in Walnut, Chino, Chino Hills, South El Monte, Diamond Bar, and West Covina.
Hu faces charges as a fugitive in China, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, three counts of transmitting and possessing counterfeit U.S. currency, and one count of counterfeiting and forging postage stamps.
Carroll Harris, Supervisory Inspector of the Los Angeles Division of the Postal Inspection Service, affirmed their ongoing efforts to maintain customer expectations of safety and security, warning fraudsters of the agency’s determination in thwarting their schemes and bringing them to justice.
Tyler Hatcher, Special Agent in Charge of Criminal Investigations at the Los Angeles office of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), underscored their collaboration with partners to safeguard taxpayers’ interests within postal services and other government agencies.