Former Waverly, Iowa Postmaster Merri Ann Burgart Sentenced in Wire Fraud Scheme: Five Years' Probation, Eight Months' Home Confinement and $16,404 in Restitution
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Iowa announced that Merri Ann Burgart, formerly known as Merri Ann Bentley, 43, of Hazelton, Iowa, the former postmaster of Waverly, Iowa, was sentenced on October 26, 2026, in federal court in Cedar Rapids to five years of probation, including eight months of home confinement, for stealing more than $16,000 from the United States Postal Service (USPS). She was ordered to pay $16,404.86 in restitution to the USPS and fined $4,000. Burgart received the sentence after a May 13, 2026, guilty plea to one count of wire fraud.
In her plea agreement and at her sentencing hearing, Burgart admitted that in about 2023 she made false entries in the USPS travel mileage system to obtain reimbursements for fictitious mileage she claimed to have incurred while delivering mail on rural routes in a personal vehicle. For example, on August 19, 2023, she falsely claimed reimbursement for 727 miles she said she had driven on 'Route 1' in the Waverly area, which was not true. Burgart earned nearly $100,000 a year at the time she was stealing from the USPS.
Burgart also admitted that in 2022 she recruited a former postmaster to set up a funnel bank account to conceal her criminal conflict of interest. Between August 2022 and September 2023, she caused the USPS to pay more than $2,500 for lawn mowing services through the funnel account, despite her conflict of interest with the ultimate recipients of the funds. Prosecutors noted that Burgart has five prior theft convictions among her criminal history.
Burgart was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams; the case file number is 25-CR-2060. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy L. Vavricek and investigated by the United States Postal Service, Office of Inspector General.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于爱荷华州 Cedar Rapids 的美国联邦法院大楼，Burgart 在此被宣判。照片：Farragutful 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / The United States Courthouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where Burgart was sentenced. Photo: Farragutful, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
