DENVER — A former U.S. Postal Service (USPS) employee in Colorado has pleaded guilty to fraud charges after accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks for awarding trucking contracts to deliver mail, according to federal court documents filed in the Northern District of Texas.
Court filings show Tai Rho, who worked as a Network Specialist for USPS in Colorado, had the authority to influence contracts awarded by the postal service. He admitted to the fraud scheme in a recent plea agreement. Court documents show Rho received bribes from two companies based in Colorado and Texas in exchange for awarding them postal trucking contracts.
“It was the purpose and abject of the conspiracy for Rho… to solicit and receive bribes… in exchange for Rho… influencing the USPS to award service contracts to shipping companies,” a filing filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas reads in part.
In one case, Rho received nearly $300,000 in kickbacks. In another, Rho met a representative of a trucking company in a parking lot several times to receive cash.