Exclusive: Millions in Bribes for U.S. Mail Contracts

2 million dollars in bribes paid to U.S. Postal Service employees helped two brothers in the trucking industry win more than $15 million in mail transport contracts, according to charging documents filed in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas. 

Wan Jin “Sam” Yoon and Hong Jin “Jay” Yoon, who are brothers, have agreed to plead guilty to a fraud scheme described by prosecutors as starting in 2015 with a $2,500 bribe.

Kickbacks increased to eventually total more than $2 million as the fraud continued into April 2021, the most recent illicit payment listed by prosecutors. According to court records, which are being reported on for the first time by Court Watch, the Yoons used bribes to win five contracts for Colorado-based trucking companies. 

The Postal Workers

Court documents describe two unnamed postal workers as conspiring with the Yoons to receive and conceal the illegal payments – and, in a meeting with one of the brothers, discussing the creation of a trucking company to cash in on the fraud scheme and split the proceeds.

Court documents state one of the workers –  a “senior network operations analyst” –  received about $1.3 million in payouts tied to “Sam” Yoon’s company winning two contracts in 2018 that were extended through June 2022. The two contracts paid out about $12.1 million to Colorado-based Postal Box Inc., a company started by Sam Yoon in 2015, according to a charging document filed Sept. 10.

“[Sam] Yoon admits that beginning in approximately Fall 2018, Yoon conspired with USPS Employee A and USPS Employee B to have the USPS officials help Postal Box obtain a USPS contract in exchange for USPS Employee A and USPS Employee B receiving proceeds of the contract,” states a court document.

Employee “B” – a “network specialist” – received a $5,000 payout after Postal Box won contracts “to provide shipping services for the Denver Postal Distribution Center and elsewhere,” court documents state.

Earlier in 2018, court records say the senior network operations analyst threatened to end the contract scheme if the bribes weren’t increased during a meeting with Sam Yoon and an unnamed “Contractor A” with the company where Sam Yoon worked at the time. 

“During that meeting, Yoon agrees and admits that USPS Employee A stated that Contractor A needed to pay him more money otherwise [the trucking company] would not receive anymore [sic] USPS contracts,” the document states. “Yoon agrees that USPS Employee A also threatened to audit [the company] for previous USPS contracts.”

The Scheme

The first instance of a fraud conspiracy described in the charging documents took place with a $2,500 payment to win a $134,000 contract awarded in 2015. Prosecutors describe the fraud continuing  with a $50,000 payment for the trucking company to win a 2017 contract that paid out about $1.8 million. Court Watch has made an editorial decision not to name the trucking company as no known criminal charges have been filed outside of the two brothers and the company denied to Court Watch any knowledge of the criminal activity by one of the brothers. 

Some illicit payments first went to an unnamed sister of postal employee “A” to be forwarded to the postal service worker “to conceal the source and nature of the payment from the government,” the court documents state.

Sam Yoon has admitted to putting $380,000 in “fraudulently obtained proceeds” into an investment account and also using illicit proceeds to buy a 2020 Tesla, both of which he would forfeit upon conviction, according to court documents.

Jay Yoon’s company, JY Logistics LLC, in November 2020 won a $1.6 million contract to provide shipping services during the peak December season, according to charging documents.

But a few months before JY Logistics LLC won the contract, Jay Yoon and the unnamed U.S. Postal Service employees met as part of the fraud conspiracy, according to a court document signed by Yoon and his attorney: “Specifically, Yoon admits and agrees that in approximately June 2020, he met USPS Employee A and USPS Employee B at a restaurant in Denver, Colorado. At the meeting, the three agreed that Yoon would open a trucking business to bid on USPS contracts. USPS Employee A and USPS Employee B would then help Yoon win the contracts and the three would share in the profits of the contracts.”

The charging documents describe “Jay” Yoon making payments “at the direction” of the U.S. Postal Service employees to persons associated with them, with each worker to receive about $295,000.

A 2024 report by the U.S. Postal Service Office for the Inspector General described the agency as having 4,600 trucking contracts with associated costs of $5.2 billion. 

A U.S. attorney’s office spokeswoman did not respond to questions about any possible investigation into the postal employees. Both a U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman and a U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General spokeswoman also declined to provide information about workers identified in court filings as postal employees “A” and “B” citing the case as “an ongoing investigation.”

Both Yoon brothers filed plea agreements last month to crimes related to the kickbacks. 

In a statement, one of the brother’s lawyers told Court Watch, “Mr. [Jay] Yoon readily accepted responsibility for his part in this crime and plans to make amends to the government. He is remorseful for his part in the scheme. Mr. Yoon recognizes that what he did was wrong and if given the opportunity to do things differently, he would make a very different choice.” An attorney for Sam Yoon, did not respond to an email and phone message requesting comment.