Greenbelt, Maryland - U.S. District Judge George J. Hazel sentenced Gregory Cooper, 59, of Glenn Dale, Maryland, a former U.S. Postal Service contracting officer, today to 15 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for receiving bribes in connection with the awarding of mail delivery contracts. Judge Hazel also entered an order that Cooper forfeit $25,931.76.
The sentence 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 L. Bowman of the U.S. Postal Service, Office of Inspector General.
According his plea agreement, in May 2015, Cooper had pleaded guilty to accepting more than $25,000 in bribes from a co-defendant who owned two companies that bid on and secured transportation contracts with the Postal Service for mail delivery. Those bribes came in a variety of forms, ranging from fitness equipment delivered to Cooper’s Maryland home, $15,900 in cash, and the payment of a $7,355 tuition bill for Cooper’s daughter. Cooper admitted that in exchange for these payments, he gave favorable consideration to his co-defendant’s companies in the bidding process for nine Postal Service contracts, all of which were awarded to the co-defendant’s companies.
U.S. Attorney Rosenstein and Assistant Attorney General Caldwell commended the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General for its work in the investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Salem and Arun G. Rao, and Trial Attorneys Monique Abrishami and Mark Cipolletti of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
