Two Indian-American owners of a bulk mailing company have been charged with defrauding the U.S. Postal Service of at least $16 million (₹110 crore). The company is based in suburban Chicago.

Yogesh Patel and Arvind Lakkamsani, owners of Prodigy Mailing Service defrauded USPS by forging documents and secretly using an official date stamp to fraudulently authenticate payment of postage for more than 80 million pieces of mail, according to criminal charges filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago.

Patel and Lakkamsani, conspired with a third defendant, David Gargano, to fraudulently cause the USPS to deliver numerous bulk mailings without payment. The trio forged a USPS clerk's signature on the verification forms and secretly used an official postal service date stamp to make it falsely appear that the clerk had authenticated postage, the charges allege.

According to the charges, the fraud went on from 2010 to 2015 through which the two accused caused a loss to the postal service of at least USD 16 million.

Bulk mail is physical mail that is commercial in nature, prepared in large volumes and mailed at reduced postage costs. Bulk mail may consist of letters, newsletters, pamphlets and other similar products. This service is often used by organisations to send out coupons for different products or services.

Prodigy had two energy company as clients which required bulk-mailing service. The two energy companies provided millions of dollars to them to pay the postage for the companies' bulk mails. Instead of using those funds to pay the postage, the two accused split the money among themselves.

According to the charges, Patel and Lakkamsani fraudulently maintained a key to a postal service mail unit, which was located inside Prodigy's facility, and used the key to secretly access an official date-stamp without the USPS' knowledge or approval. This helped the duo circumvent the payment system for postage for more than 80 million pieces of mail.

Patel, 58, of Orlando, Florida, Lakkamsani, 57, of Northbrook, Illinois have been charged with one count of mail fraud. Mail fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison in the U.S. (With Agency inputs)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 27, 2018 06:19 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).