Greenbelt, Maryland - Gregory Cooper, 59, of Glenn Dale, Maryland, a former U.S. Postal Service contracting officer, pleaded guilty today to receiving bribes in connection with the awarding of contracts to deliver the mail.
The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; and Special Agent in Charge Paul Bowman of the U.S. Postal Service, Office of Inspector General.
According to a factual stipulation filed with the court, Cooper engaged in a course of conduct that consisted of corruptly demanding, seeking, receiving, accepting, and agreeing to receive and accept a stream of benefits from a co-defendant who owned ER&R Transportation and MC&G Trucking LLC, which bid on and secured transportation contracts with the Postal Service for the delivery of the mails. The stream of benefits to Cooper from the co-defendant included $15,900 in cash and the payment of a $7,355 tuition bill for Cooper’s daughter. Total payments to or benefitting Cooper amounted to nearly $26,000.
Cooper admitted that in exchange for these payments, he gave favorable consideration to bids submitted by ER&R Transportation and MC&G Trucking LLC for contracts with the Postal Service. Specifically, as to the nine Postal Service contracts on which the co-defendant bid during the relevant time period, Cooper personally awarded three of those contracts to the co-defendant’s companies, and recommended to his superiors that the other six should likewise be awarded to those companies. As a result, during the relevant time period, the co-defendant was successful in every bid placed with the Postal Service.
Cooper faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for accepting a bribe as a public official. U.S. District Judge George J. Hazel has scheduled sentencing for Sept. 3, 2015 at 10:00 a.m.
U.S. Attorney Rosenstein and Assistant Attorney General Caldwell commended the U.S. Postal Service Office of the Inspector General for its work in the investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Arun G. Rao and Trial Attorneys Maria Lerner and Mark Cipolletti of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
