Woman pleads guilty, forfeits local properties in $150 million fraud case

A 51-year-old Walnut woman who owned a packing shipping company in the City of Industry pleaded guilty April 26 to using counterfeit postage, costing the U.S. Postal Service more than $150 million in losses, federal prosecutors announced. Lijuan Chen, who has been in federal custody since May 2023, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count to using counterfeit postage.

She is facing a maximum of 10 years in federal prison when she is scheduled to be sentenced Friday, Aug. 2. In her plea agreement with prosecutors, Ms. Chen agreed to forfeit funds from her bank account, insurance policies, and properties in Chino, Chino Hills, Walnut, South El Monte, Diamond Bar and West Covina, the spokesman said.

A second suspect, identified as Chuanhua Hu, 51, is believed to be living in China, U.S. District Attorney spokesman Ciaran McEvoy said.

Mr. Hu is charged with one count of defrauding the United States, three counts of passing and possessing counterfeit obligations of the United States, and one count of forging and counterfeiting postage stamps, the spokesman said.

Ms. Chen and Mr. Hu owned the packing shipping business in the City of Industry from November 2019 to May 2023, selling shipping services that included packages for China-based logistics businesses, Mr. McEvoy said.

"To avoid the cost of postage, Mr. Hu began creating false and counterfeit postage to ship packages by printing duplicate and counterfeit Netstamps, or stamps that may be purchased online from third-party vendors and printed onto adhesive paper," Mr. McEvoy said. The company received parcels from China-based vendors, applied shipping labels that showed the postage was paid and had the items shipped by the U.S. Postal Service. More than 34 million packages using counterfeit labels were shipped from January 2020 to May 2023, Mr. McESIZE