FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	CONTACT: Lauren Horwood
January 28, 2011	PHONE: (916) 554-2706
www.usdoj.gov/usao/cae	usacae.edcapress@usdoj.gov
Docket #: 2:09-334 EJG

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that Brett Lee Hartman, 57, of Modesto, was sentenced today by Senior United States District Judge Edward J. Garcia to 27 months in federal prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release for theft of government property, mail fraud, and forging and counterfeiting meter postal stamps.

According to court documents, between 2006 and 2009, Hartman manufactured and sold counterfeited postal meter stamps, and made over $190,000 doing so. At the same time he was selling the counterfeit stamps, Hartman was receiving Social Security income to which he was not entitled. As part of his sentence, Hartman was ordered to pay the U.S. Postal Service $193,000 in restitution, and pay the Social Security Administration $31,448.50 in restitution. Judge Garcia said that the sentence was appropriate given Hartman’s repeated and sophisticated manner of stealing government funds.

  

This case is the product of an extensive investigation by the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General. Assistant United States Attorneys Carolyn K. Delaney and Robin R. Taylor prosecuted the case.   

  

 

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