A Los Angeles-area woman has been sentenced to two years and six months in federal prison after participating in a large-scale counterfeit postage scheme that defrauded the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) of more than $150 million.
Lijuan “Angela” Chen, 53, was also ordered to pay more than $158 million in restitution after pleading guilty in April 2024 to conspiracy to defraud the United States and the use of counterfeit postage.
According to court records, Chen and her co-defendant, Chuanhua “Hugh” Hu, operated a parcel shipping business in the City of Industry, California, between at least November 2019 and May 2023. Their company worked with logistics providers in China to ship packages all over the US using the USPS network.
To avoid paying legitimate postage costs, Hu created counterfeit shipping labels by producing fake Netstamps—postage that can normally be purchased online through authorized third-party vendors and printed onto adhesive labels. Investigators also found that he developed software capable of generating fraudulent postage labels designed to evade USPS detection systems.
Federal prosecutors said Hu fled the United States for China in November 2019 after learning he was under investigation. While in China, he continued developing methods to manufacture counterfeit postage and conceal the fraud. Meanwhile, Chen remained in the United States, overseeing the warehouses used to prepare and distribute parcels bearing the fake postage.
Beginning in 2020, the pair received packages from Chinese vendors and other customers, attached counterfeit USPS shipping labels, and arranged for the parcels to enter the Postal Service’s distribution network. Court documents revealed that many of the labels contained recycled “intelligent barcode data” copied from previously shipped packages. These barcodes are normally used to verify that the required postage has been paid.
One shipment highlighted by prosecutors occurred on Oct. On November 25, 2022, Chen and Hu caused approximately 4,780 parcels to be sent to USPS for delivery. Several of those packages bore counterfeit USPS Priority Mail postage meter stamps.
The operation used fake postage labels to send more than 34 million packages between January 2020 and May 2023, costing the Postal Service more than $150 million in revenue, authorities said.
Hu remains in China and is regarded as a fugitive. He is wanted for conspiracy, forgery and counterfeiting of postage stamps.
