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Los Angeles Woman Sentenced to Prison in $150M Counterfeit Postage Scheme

A Southern California woman has been handed a 30-month prison sentence and ordered to pay $158 million in restitution for operating a massive mail fraud operation. Lijuan Chen, 53, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and using counterfeit postage between November 2019 and May 2023. Working with co-defendant Chuanhua Hu, Chen operated a package shipping business in the City of Industry that helped China-based logistics companies circumvent postage costs. The scheme involved fabricating Netstamps and fraudulent shipping labels with recycled barcode data from previously mailed packages. Over the operation's four-year span, Chen and Hu processed more than 34 million parcels bearing counterfeit postage through USPS facilities. Hu fled to China in 2019 to develop digital counterfeiting methods while Chen managed warehouses handling the fraudulent mail.