The Indictments

In February of 2010 I was indicted on several charges to include mail fraud, making false statements on documents and bribery. Certain charges would later be dropped and the charges of bribery would also later be reduced to giving Illegal Gratuities.  The final scorecard would read:

Mail Fraud - 5 Counts
Making False Statements on Documents - 4 Counts
Giving Illegal Gratuities - 3 Counts

Also indicted were the following individuals;

Teresa Tremusini  - former postmaster at the Festus, Missouri post office
Mike Jones  - former supervisor at the Festus, Missouri post office

Each of these postal employees were indicted on charges of accepting bribes, later reduced to illegal gratuities.  Myself and the two postal workers would plead NOT GUILTY at our hearing.

A former employee of SG, Donna (last name withheld) had earlier accepted a plea agreement from the government charging her with 2 counts of mail fraud.

Two other SG employees escaped indictment.  Their names are Bill Menkhus and Rick Decollo.  They would become key witnesses for the government and were in effect given get out of jail free cards despite their obvious culpability.  Not surprisingly, these individuals now share the financial rewards that awaited them once my company was forced to shut its doors at the end of 2009. They will be the focus of posts to come detailing their malicious acts towards my company and anyone else they could throw under the bus ....  true liars and cowards in every sense of the word.

The charges of mail fraud evolved from the various schemes that were used to defraud the USPS.  For the most part, these sophisticated schemes, as the government likes to characterize them, were no more than handing documents to postal employees who would happily sign off on anything presented to them.  Approximately 15 USPS employees would regularly engage in the practice of certifying our documents as accurate without making any attempt to verify the accuracy of those documents.  These USPS employees escaped scrutiny and/or criminal charges because it was deemed they were incompetent in performing their duties.  This would become an all too common excuse for the actions of the USPS as you will learn.

The charges of making false statements on documents resulted from the inaccurate information contained on the documents the USPS employees would certify as correct.   It is accurate to say the USPS employees made false statements or representations on well over a hundred thousand documents.   

The charges of bribery/giving illegal gratuities would ultimately, I believe, be the most damaging charges in the disposition of my sentencing.  Those charges would evolve from the following accounts.

In mid year 2006 I went to visit a couple of SG’s larger clients, an automobile mail broker in Michigan and Maytag Corporation in Newton, IA. It had been my intent to travel all the way to Michigan that day. A late start and terrific rain storm changed my plans and I pulled over at a Harrah’s in Joliet, IL. It wasn’t my intent to include any entertainment in this trip but I did some gaming and was fortunate enough to walk out of their casino with approximately $70,000 cash.

As fortunate as my winnings were they certainly made the rest of my trip a bit awkward in trying to conceal that amount of cash. A check from the casino might have been a better option in hindsight.

When I returned to town a few days later I visited the Festus post office as I did from time to time and during general chit-chat mentioned my trip and shared with a few of them the story of my good fortune.  Before leaving the office I sat down at the desk of postmaster Tremusini who was obviously distraught.  Within a few moments she asked me if I had a bank that would make her a personal loan.  I told her no, not unless she had the required collateral.

She would then proceed to tell me of a family situation that required a monetary solution and asked if I ever made personal loans.  I told her that I did. She asked if I would be willing to give her a loan that she would pay back within a specified time period.  I agreed without any consideration to the potential conflict of interest it was creating for her and certainly not giving any thought to the problems it would soon create for myself.  

I had grown accustomed to helping those in the community with financial difficulties.  Some would pay me back, some would not.  I wasn't accustomed to giving loans quite the size she requested but I had just told her and others of my fortunate windfall and couldn't quite bring myself to tell her I could not loan her what was in effect some of the free money I had just won.

Even though I had plenty of cash at my disposal I went to the bank, had a CASHIERS CHECK issued and presented it to her that same day. Although she requested me not to, I did share the loan information with my attorney and other SG employees.  My attorney was instructed to create a promissory note. The other SG employees were Donna, Bill Menkhus and Rick Decollo.  At the time of this loan, myself and these three employees were very aware of the investigation that had started earlier in the year.

A couple of weeks later I would be contacted again by Tremusini asking for an additional loan and assuring me both loans would be paid back within the next couple of months.  Again, I had a CASHIERS CHECK issued and presented it to her that day.  I notified my attorney to amend the promissory note and again told the same other employees of my actions.  I did not want there to be any confusion about the nature of the loans.  The two loans were for $10,000 each.


A few months later Jones, the other indicted USPS employee called me while I was on a plane to New Orleans.  After checking his message I called Donna and instructed her to contact him and find out what he wanted.  I was going to be involved at a Whirlpool Convention and did not want to bother myself with that call.  Jones would soon visit the offices of SG and share his requests with Donna.  He also had a family emergency and requested a loan.  I would later learn he was about to lose his home.  Donna told me of his request and how confident she was that he earnestly was in a desperate situation.  

By now,  not only were we aware of the government's investigation but we were also aware of their discovery of the CASHIERS CHECKS paid to Tremusini.  My first reaction to this loan request was that Jones was possibly sent there by the government and was wired.  I alerted Donna to this possibility and she again felt his request to be legitimate.  Jones requested a $10,000 cash loan.  Mike was aware of the government's discovery of the loans to Tremusini.  He was also aware of my cash windfall.  He wanted no paper trail left.  Donna would make the necessary provisions to get him the cash he requested as I was still out of town.  There was no promissory note drafted for Jones.  He would later pay the loan back in full with no interest.
 
To summarize, even though I knew an investigation was going on, I provided two loans in the form of cashiers checks to one postal employee.  The other I provided cash and he later paid me back. In both cases I shared the information of the loans with several others. These are the facts upon which the government would make their charges of bribery/illegal gratuities. 


What I would later learn is that SG employees Menkhus and Decollo would conveniently offer a different story to postal inspectors.  They offered up conflicting amounts of the loans but were both very united in suggesting that I would brag about bribing these individuals and that I liked owning postal employees.   Decollo would even go on to state that I asked him  to assist in bribing another postmaster.  These statements to postal inspectors were complete fabrications.  Unfortunately, these lies helped to tell a story the government wanted so desperately to tell.