Contractor Ilya Zagaryuk Pleads Guilty to Paying Over $465,000 in Kickbacks on U.S. Postal Service Repair Contracts
The Justice Department announced on Oct. 27 that Ilya Zagaryuk, 40, of Damascus, Oregon, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, admitting that from May 2022 to February 2024 he paid more than $465,000 in kickbacks to steer U.S. Postal Service (USPS) facilities repair work to his company, and agreed to pay $465,347.75 in restitution to the Postal Service.
According to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in Sacramento, Zagaryuk's company contracted and subcontracted on repair work for dozens of Postal Service sites in Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and Washington. He paid a co-conspirator — an employee of a prime contractor on Postal Service projects — to steer additional work to his company, and the co-conspirators intentionally inflated contracting documents, including estimates and invoices, to include funds for the kickbacks that were not tied to legitimate repair costs.
“Protecting taxpayers and federal-agency dollars is central to our mission,” said U.S. Attorney Eric Grant for the Eastern District of California. Executive Special Agent in Charge Kevin Cloninger of the USPS Office of Inspector General said the office will continue to aggressively investigate companies that defraud the Postal Service's contracting process.
Zagaryuk faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The restitution of $465,347.75 is jointly and severally liable with co-defendants. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. The USPS Office of Inspector General and the FBI Sacramento Field Office investigated the case; the Antitrust Division's San Francisco Office and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California are prosecuting.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：美国邮政（USPS）邮车。公共领域（PD），来源：Wikimedia Commons / Photo: A U.S. Postal Service mail truck. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
