Happiness Isn’t a Crime, Is It? No, but Fraud Certainly Is.

When we started this series, we featured a case where a mail carrier filed for workers’ compensation after an on-the-job ankle injury — a fraudulent claim she milked for 14 years. But a more recent case has broken that mold: it involves a mail handler who sustained an injury at work and defrauded the Postal Service and the U.S. Department of Labor for 19 years.

It started with an accident at a mail processing plant: the handler sustained an injury when a pallet jack pinned him against a steel beam.

A medical report instructed him not to return to work given his difficulty with certain activities such as prolonged standing, walking, and bending due to the injury. His doctor also said the pain medication would interfere with his concentration and judgement.

That was it: he was benched due to the disability. Weeks soon turned into months, and months into years.

The beginning of the end started when an anonymous complaint was referred to our Hotline. The handler had been active on social media, posting about his hobbies, extensive travels, and other daily activities.

Trouble standing or walking? That didn’t stop him from shag dancing with his wife at a weekly social event.

Trouble sitting for long periods of time? Try an eight-hour flight to Paris.

What about trouble bending or moving in other ways? You’d never know it if you saw him reach, bend, and twist into his car during a deep clean.

When our special agents interviewed the handler, he stuck to his guns: He said he lived with chronic pain, for which he needed medication and would sometimes use a cane when it was severe enough. His life, he said, had never been the same after the accident.

However, the reality was his injury did improve but he repeatedly lied about it when he submitted claims to continue receiving workers’ compensation.

When pressed about the dancing, he denied it, saying he’d just stand in one place to make his wife look good. When asked about the trip to Paris or the cross-country road trips he took, he said he could pull them off if he stopped every few minutes to stretch his legs and walk. And when asked about his other hobbies and daily activities, he said he was just a man living his life, trying to make his wife happy, adding he shouldn’t be penalized for being happy.

Pictures obtained during the investigation showed an able-bodied man living a lie. He smiled as he zoomed on a zipline and enjoyed bodyboarding in the ocean. He traveled extensively for four years — often by car — snapping pictures at Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon, and “The Happiest Place on Earth” in sunny California.

The day our special agents met with him, his account of the trip to the interview went like this: his wife drove him, making three stops along the 49-mile ride so he could stretch and move around. Only it didn’t: there was evidence showing him driving without stopping. As for the walking cane he claimed to be using? There was no evidence of it either.

Our agents arrested the handler, who later pleaded guilty to Federal Employees’ Compensation Act fraud. In June 2024, a federal court sentenced him to six months of home detention and ordered him to pay restitution. We estimate a cost savings to the Postal Service of almost $783,000, had our special agents not uncovered the fraud.

Healthcare claimant fraud takes away from postal employees who are injured on the job and legitimately need workers’ compensation. It also lowers morale for employees who, despite sustaining injuries, do make it back to work. If you suspect or know of healthcare claimant fraud involving Postal Service employees or contractors, please report it to our Hotline.

For further reading:

Department of Justice (via uspsoig.gov), Former Postal Employee Pleads Guilty to Workers’ Compensation Fraud