Byron Gorman, Money Order Forgery, MO 2024

Byron G. Gorman, 52, of St. Joseph, Mo., is behind bars after a federal judge sentenced him to four years in prison without parole for a brazen fraud scheme involving stolen U.S. Postal Service money order receipts. Gorman, a former federal IT specialist, admitted to using the pilfered documents to fake payments on thousands in unpaid medical bills—lying under oath and filing false lawsuits to cover his tracks.

U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple handed down the sentence, ordering Gorman to also pay $18,000 in restitution. The case, prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Venneman, exposed a calculated deception that stretched from a federal search warrant operation to the courtroom, where Gorman weaponized stolen evidence to manipulate the civil justice system.

Gorman, once employed as an information technology specialist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General, was assigned to the Heart of America Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory in Kansas City, Mo., where he was training to become a certified computer forensic examiner. He was terminated from federal service on June 22, 2015, after the fraud came to light.

The crime began during a May 22, 2012, federal search warrant execution at a private business in Kansas City, Kan. While searching for digital evidence, Gorman stole five blank U.S. Postal Service money order receipts. He later filled them out to falsely show payments made to Heartland Regional Medical Center in St. Joseph, where he had accumulated large medical debts.

As a defendant in two civil collection lawsuits filed in Buchanan County, Mo., Gorman submitted the forged receipts and fabricated letters bearing fake signatures of postal employees. He claimed the payments had been sent but never posted. He went further—filing his own lawsuit against his creditors, submitting doctored letters purportedly from the U.S. Postal Service and the Federal Trade Commission, all part of a wire fraud scheme.

The FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and USDA Office of Inspector General – Office of Compliance and Integrity led the investigation. Despite Gorman’s role in forensic training, no tainted evidence was found in prior cases he assisted with, thanks to strict lab protocols. The Heart of America lab conducted a full review and confirmed the integrity of its work remained intact.