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United Airlines Agrees To Pay $49 Million For Defrauding US Postal Service

(Photo credit should read MIRA OBERMAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Ashley Carnahan Contributor
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United Airlines has agreed to pay nearly $49 million to resolve criminal fraud charges and civil claims against the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).

United, in agreement with the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, agreed to pay $17,271,415 in “criminal penalties and disgorgement” as well as $32,186,687 in a False Claims Act settlement with the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section, according to a DOJ press release issued Friday.

From 2012-2015, United “engaged in a scheme to defraud USPS by submitting false delivery scan data,” the DOJ statement read. (RELATED: CEO Of United Airlines Calls For Companies To Mandate COVID Vaccine) 

“Instead of providing USPS accurate delivery scans based on the movement of the mail, United submitted automated delivery scans based on aspirational delivery times,” the statement continued. “These automated scans did not correspond to the actual movement of the mail, as mandated by the contracts.”

“United was entrusted by the U.S. Postal Service with fulfilling a critical government function – the transportation of U.S. mail abroad,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicholas L. McQuaid of the DOJ’s Criminal Division.

“Instead of performing this duty with transparency, United defrauded the U.S. Postal Service by providing falsified parcel delivery information over a period of years and accepting millions of dollars of payments to which the company was not entitled,” he said.

United Airlines made headlines recently after one of its flights, bound for Hawaii, conducted an emergency landing in Denver, Colorado, due to an engine fire. The incident has drawn the attention of transportation regulators.