CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) - An eastern Iowa man has been convicted of forging and counterfeiting postage stamps, according to federal prosecutors for Iowa.
A federal judge found Bradley Jon Matheny, 42, of Marion, guilty Tuesday of seven counts of postage meter stamp forgery and counterfeiting and three counts of export violations after a one-day trial in Cedar Rapids, prosecutors said in a news release.
Matheny used forged and counterfeited postage meter stamps to ship most of the more than 28,000 packages he mailed to his eBay business customers between November 2015 and May 2017, investigators said.
Matheny used a system of altering postage numbers to get a lower postage price for shipments, prosecutors said. For example, he would buy postage at the 3-ounce rate, but then alter the “3” into an “8.” One expert testified that Matheny had shorted the U.S. Postal Service more than $250,000.
Matheny faces up to 65 years in federal prison and a $2.5 million fine when he’s sentenced at a later date.
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