DALLAS, Texas — Four individuals involved in a bribery scheme tied to U.S. Postal Service contracts have been sentenced to a combined 99 months in federal prison, federal officials announced.
According to court documents, two USPS employees, Zechariah Yi, 52, and Tai Ryoung Rho, 51, both of Aurora, Colorado, accepted approximately $1.5 million in kickbacks from trucking company owners in exchange for helping them secure USPS service contracts worth about $15 million.
The trucking companies were operated by Wan Jin Yoon, 51, of Plano, Texas, and Hong Jin Yoon, 48, of Denver, Colorado.
Yi pleaded guilty to receiving a bribe as a public official, while Rho, Wan Yoon, and Hong Yoon pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud.
U.S. District Judge Karen Gren Scholer handed down the following sentences on March 26 and 27:
- Zechariah Yi: 42 months in prison
- Tai Ryoung Rho: 30 months
- Wan Jin Yoon: 24 months
- Hong Jin Yoon: 3 months
In addition to prison time, the defendants agreed to forfeit two vehicles and more than $300,000 in cash.
“At the expense of the integrity and fairness of the government contracting process, these defendants resorted to bribery and corruption simply to line their own pockets,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould. “The diligent work of our law enforcement partners led to a successful prosecution of these fraudsters by my office. This outcome should serve as a warning to others contemplating such behavior, that we will hold every person accountable for fraud schemes of this nature.”
“The public must have confidence that Postal Service employees will conduct their work in an honest manner,” said Kevin Cloninger, Executive Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General. “When employees commit serious offenses, such as taking bribes, they will be aggressively investigated and prosecuted by Special Agents with the USPS OIG. We thank our law enforcement partners in this case at the United States Attorney’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for assuring that there is no place for public corruption anywhere within the Postal Service.”
“The defendants fraudulently secured a government contract in a scheme that involved paying kickbacks to government employees, who misused their positions of trust with the U.S. Postal Service for personal gain,” said FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge R. Joseph Rothrock. “The FBI remains committed to holding accountable individuals that defraud the United States government.”
The case was investigated by the FBI’s Dallas Field Office and the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.
