Contractor, MD consultant charged in alleged USPS bribery conspiracy

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A packaging contractor was charged last week in a conspiracy in which federal prosecutors said that a Postal Service official took bribes in exchange for steering lucrative contract awards toward businesses.

James Griffin, a national account manager and sales contractor for an unnamed Michigan-based corrugated box manufacturer, was charged with conspiracy Thursday in U.S. District Court for Maryland. He has not yet appeared in court.

His attorney, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Zelinsky, declined to comment.

Griffin is accused of working with James E. Lee Jr., a Maryland-based consultant who pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy charges after federal prosecutors accused him of acting as an intermediary between four firms and the Postal Service official.

The criminal information filed against Griffin says that the official, a product management specialist at the Postal Service, helped the Michigan firm receive three contracts for shipping supplies that were worth millions of dollars. Griffin is accused of paying Lee about $51,103 to obtain confidential information from the official about pricing and for the official to influence contract decisions.

The charging document cites emails between Griffin and Lee, days before a contract deadline, about sending money to the official.

“[OFFICIAL A] told me [OFFICIAL A’s] saving up for a Elk hunt trip,” Griffin wrote, according to the charging document.

“How about if we figure out a way to make sure [OFFICIAL A] gets [OFFICIAL A’s] trip[.] If OK with you I could send you a bonus $$and you could use it to buy [OFFICIAL A’s] trip,” he said, adding that there was “No need to tell” the official where it came from.

Later that year, the Postal Service awarded the contract – valued at a minimum of $30 million and a maximum of $885 million – to Griffin’s company.

Last month, Lee pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery and honest services wire fraud, admitting in a plea agreement that he worked with the official and others in a “corrupt scheme” to assist four unnamed companies with Postal Service contracts. He is scheduled to be sentenced in June before U.S. District Judge Lydia K. Griggsby and faces up to five years of incarceration.

It was unclear whether the official, a Maryland resident who worked for the Postal Service for nearly 24 years until separating in 2024, would face charges. He was not named in court records.

The cases are being prosecuted by Edward P. Sullivan, acting chief of the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section.