James E. Lee Sr., a former procurement official for the U.S. Postal Service, pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring to commit bribery and honest services wire fraud, the Justice Department said. The department's own headline puts the scale up front: contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The EconoTimes write-up, headlined "Former U.S. Postal Service Official Pleads Guilty in Bribery Scheme," leaves that figure out of its headline and leads with the smaller number, the nearly $183,000 paid to a relative.
According to court documents, Lee was a product management specialist overseeing expedited packaging supplies for the Postal Service. Among other duties, he served as a contracting officer representative on several contracts to manufacture and provide those supplies. Between about mid-2018 and late 2023, the department said, Lee and others agreed to a corrupt scheme in which he steered the procurement process for lucrative Postal Service contracts, worth hundreds of millions of dollars in certain instances, so they would be awarded to or retained by four different companies.
Lee gave the companies preferential treatment and competitive advantages, the department said. That included reviewing their draft technical proposals and disclosing confidential internal information about pricing and other issues. He also performed official acts and influenced other officials during the procurement process.
To hide his hand, Lee used a relative and the relative's consulting company as a go-between to feed information to the companies and conceal his efforts to steer contracts, the department said. In exchange, the companies hired the relative as an employee or consultant, with payments totaling nearly $183,000. EconoTimes reports the relative helped relay information to the firms and conceal Lee's role.
Lee's relative and a former executive of one of the manufacturing companies have already pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing, according to the department. Lee is scheduled for sentencing on Feb. 25, 2027. Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Criminal Division, Executive Special Agent in Charge Kevin Cloninger of the Postal Service's Office of Inspector General and FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard Evanchec announced the plea.
The Postal Service Office of the Inspector General and the FBI Pittsburgh Field Office are investigating this and related cases. Chief Edward P. Sullivan of the Criminal Division's Public Integrity Section is prosecuting them, and Criminal Division Attorney Celia R. Choy provided substantial assistance with the investigation.
