Postmaster who defrauded USPS of almost $1M in scheme sentenced

A Connecticut man who was operating an embezzlement scheme involving bribes and kickbacks while serving as the postmaster of the Danbury Post Office was sentenced to four years in federal prison.

Ephrem D. Nguyen, 51, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport to 48 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release after pleading guilty to honest services wire fraud on Oct. 13, 2023, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Nguyen was the postmaster of the Danbury Post Office with responsibilities that included “supervising the maintenance and repair of all equipment, facilities and vehicles assigned to the post office,” federal officials said.

In November 2020, Nguyen reportedly required that all vehicle maintenance and repair work for the post office be performed by a certain vendor, identified as“vendor 1” in court records, even though he knew another vendor already had a contract with the Danbury Post Office, according to court records.

Nguyen then reportedly demanded that Vendor-1 provide free vehicle maintenance and repairs for himself, one of his children, a U.S. Postal Service employee and an employee of Nguyen’s personal business, court records show.

Michael D. Lutz was the general manager for “Vendor-1,” which provided vehicle maintenance and repair services for the Danbury Post Office. In 2022, Nguyen reportedly solicited and received $90,000 from Lutz in cash bribes, which Lutz paid from Vendor-1’s proceeds, according to court records. In exchange for the bribes, Nguyen authorized USPS funds to overpay Vendor-1 for vehicle maintenance and repairs, which he characterized as a “raise.”

“Between approximately January 2022 and February 2023, Nguyen used USPS credit cards to pay Vendor-1 more than $1 million, or approximately $760,000 more than necessary to pay for legitimate maintenance and repair work,” federal officials said.

In addition, Nguyen reportedly embezzled over $80,000 from the USPS by using his USPS credit cards to rent personal vehicles and approved more than $8,000 in fraudulent travel expense reimbursement claims for a co-worker.