Fenton Man Sentenced to 51 Months, $3.8 Million Restitution for Postal Fraud

Robert Scott Gray, 51, of Fenton, was sentenced to 51 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $3.8 million for falsely claiming stamps were used on bulk mailings and by concealing documentation of mailings from the U.S. Postal Service to avoid payment, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced on Friday. 

Gray's business, SG Print & Mail in Festus, provided direct mail services to clients. A client would contract with SG Print & Mail to perform a direct mailing, for example, of 30,000 mail pieces. Typically, SG Print & Mail contracted with a printer to print the mail pieces. SG Print & Mail would then prepare the direct mailing by placing addresses on each mail piece and sorting the mail pieces by address/zip code for bulk mailing.  

Between January 2005 and December 2006, Gray directed employee Donna Beckman to lie about the number of pre-canceled stamps that they used and to falsify the postal forms describing how many they had used, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. Additionally, The news release indicated Gray paid Festus Postmaster Teresa Tremusini $20,000, payable in two cashier’s checks in August 2006; and in January 2007 paid postal supervisor Michael Jones $10,000 cash.  These payments were in return for the approval of bulk mail postal forms.

The loss to the U.S. Postal Service for these schemes total of  approximately $3.8 million, according to the U.S. Attorney's office statement.

Gray pled guilty in April to five felony counts of mail fraud, four felony counts of making false statements, and three felony counts of giving an illegal gratuity, and appeared Friday for sentencing before United States District Judge Rodney W. Sippel.

Tremusini was sentenced in August to 24 months in prison followed by one year of supervised release. In June, she was convicted of two felony counts of receipt of illegal gratuities.