Anwer Fareed Alam, Mail Fraud, California 2019

Related Federal Cases

David Gomez Convicted of Mail Fraud, Los Angeles CA, 2023 · California
Bruce Choi, COVID-19 Relief Fraud, Los Angeles CA, 2023 · California
Tyrone Bradshaw, Sex Offender Registration Fraud, Los Angeles CA, 2023 · Texas
Dorothy Matsuba Led $30M Mortgage Relief Fraud Scheme, Los Angeles … · California
Two Foreign Nationals, ID Theft Scheme, Los Angeles CA, 2023 · Florida

Table of Contents

Grimy Times Exclusive

Anwer Fareed Alam and Yousofzay Fahim Alam, Temecula brothers, have landed in hot water. The duo was sentenced to prison for their involvement in a $2.1 million mail insurance scam that targeted the United States Postal Service (USPS).

According to court documents, from October 2016 to May 2019, the brothers submitted thousands of fraudulent Priority Mail insurance claims to the USPS, resulting in a total loss of approximately $2,135,739. They used aliases and fake business names to hide the number of false insurance claims.

The scheme involved purchasing Priority Mail packages and postages with $100 in insurance for lost or damaged parcel contents. Anwer Alam would then wrap empty packages or packages containing little or no value and send them to fake recipients at fictitious addresses.

Yousofzay Alam would then submit the fraudulent insurance claims via the Postal Service’s website, falsely certifying that the packages contained items of higher value than they did. He also included false invoices and photographs of goods that were not actually inside the parcels.

The USPS, relying on the false information, issued checks to the Alam brothers to cover their purported losses. The brothers would then deposit the fraudulently obtained funds into their bank accounts. For example, in November 2018, they fraudulently caused a $106.59 Priority Mail claim check to be sent to a business address in Temecula.

Anwer Fareed Alam, 36, and Yousofzay Fahim Alam, 34, each pleaded guilty on February 16 to one count of mail fraud. United States District Judge Wesley L. Hsu sentenced them to 27 months in prison and ordered them to jointly pay $2,135,739 in restitution.

The United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General investigated this matter, and Assistant United States Attorney Courtney N. Williams of the Riverside Branch Office prosecuted the case.