Walnut woman gets 2 years, 6 months in $150 million-plus postal scam

A Walnut woman was sentenced Thursday, July 9 to two years and six months behind bars for using counterfeit postage to ship millions of parcels in a scheme prosecutors say caused the U.S. Postal Service to lose more than $150 million.

Lijuan “Angela” Chen, 53, pleaded guilty in April 2024 to federal counts of conspiracy and forging and counterfeiting postage stamps.

Along with the prison sentence, Chen was ordered to pay restitution of over $158 million.

Pursuant to her plea agreement and a court order, Chen has forfeited her interest in 12 homes, four certificates of deposit and six insurance policies, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Chen provided shipping and postage services to businesses, including e-commerce vendors operating out of China, that sought discounted USPS rates for mailing their products within the United States.

“The vast majority of the postage used by Chen and her business to ship goods within the United States is counterfeit,” prosecutors wrote in papers filed in Los Angeles federal court.

Chen’s Industry-based business received parcels from the vendors and others, applied shipping labels showing postage purportedly paid, then arranged for the parcels to be transferred to U.S. Postal Service facilities to be shipped across the nation.

A Postal Service analyst estimated that from January 2020 to May 2023 Chen and her employees shipped over 9 million mail parcels containing counterfeit postage, resulting in estimated revenue losses to the government of over $150 million, the indictment says.

Chen’s shipping business was previously operated by her husband, who fled to China two days after being interviewed by postal inspectors in November 2019, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.