A government contractor is charged with bribing a U.S. Postal Service executive to give her company a series of lucrative contracts in exchange for paying college tuition for the executive’s daughter.
Barbara Murphy, owner of a North Carolina-based trucking company that was frequently contracted by USPS, was indicted recently for her alleged role in a scheme to defraud the postal service by offering a variety of kickbacks to a contracting officer in exchange for a fast-track to nine separate contracts.
The contracting officer, Gregory Cooper, was also indicted, according to the Department of Justice.
Authorities accused Murphy of secretly depositing cash into Cooper’s bank accounts between January 2011 and July 2012, during which time her company netted $1.5 million in contracts to deliver the mail.
Murphy also paid Cooper’s cell phone bill, car payments and daughter’s tuition, the Justice Department alleged.
The contracting official repaid her by assuming oversight responsibility for her company’s contracts, recommending her company for nine awards and feeding Murphy confidential bid information, according to the indictment.
Cooper is no longer employed by USPS, the Justice Department said.
Murphy faces seven charges in district court in Maryland, where Cooper resides. Cooper faces nine charges, including conspiracy, bribery and producing false documents.
Because USPS manages billions of dollars worth of contracts across the country, such fraud is a relatively common problem, the agency said. In 2013, the USPS inspector general recovered $95 million from its contractor fraud investigations.
