Lijuan Angela Chen, Counterfeit Postage Scheme, California 2023

LOS ANGELES – A Chinese national has been arrested and charged with operating a massive scheme that shipped millions of packages with counterfeit postage, causing losses of over $60 million to the United States Postal Service (USPS).

Lijuan “Angela” Chen, 50, of Walnut, was taken into custody by inspectors with the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and IRS Criminal Investigation on Tuesday afternoon.

The federal complaint, filed May 22, charges Chen with two counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, and possession and use of counterfeit postage.

The investigation, conducted by the USPS and USPIS, revealed that Chen’s business, based in the City of Industry, received parcels from vendors and others, applied shipping labels showing postage purportedly paid, and then arranged for the parcels to be transferred to USPS facilities to be shipped across the nation.

Inspectors discovered that the shipping labels were fraudulent, containing red flags such as ‘intelligent barcode data’ from previously mailed items and meter numbers that indicated the postage meters had been discontinued in 2020.

According to the complaint, Chen and her employees shipped over 9 million mail parcels containing counterfeit postage between November 1, 2022, and April 30, 2023, resulting in estimated revenue losses to the USPS of over $60 million.

Chen’s shipping business was previously operated by her husband, who left for China two days after being interviewed by Postal inspectors in November 2019.

A complaint contains allegations that a defendant committed a crime. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

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