Four Sentenced to Combined 99 Months in Federal Prison for US Postal Bribery Scheme

Four defendants involved in a United States Postal Service bribery scheme were sentenced to a combined 99 months in federal prison, announced United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould.

According to court documents, a former Senior Network Analyst for the United States Postal Service, Zechariah Yi, 52, of Aurora, Colorado, and a second USPS employee, Tai Ryoung Rho, 51, also of Aurora, Colorado, pled guilty to a bribery scheme in which they solicited and received approximately $1.5 million in kickbacks from the owners and associates of multiple trucking companies in exchange for agreeing to help the trucking companies obtain USPS service contracts worth approximately $15 million.

Wan Jin Yoon, 51, of Plano, Texas, and Hong Jin Yoon, 48, of Denver, Colorado, owned the trucking companies that obtained the USPS contracts under the bribery scheme.  Rho, Wan Yoon, and Hong Yoon each pled guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud.  Yi pled guilty to receiving a bribe by a public official.

On March 26 and March 27, 2026, U.S. District Judge Karen Gren Scholer imposed the following federal prison sentences: 

•    Yi was sentenced to 42 months
•    Rho was sentenced to 30 months
•    Wan Yoon was sentenced to 24 months
•    Hong Yoon was sentenced to 3 months

The defendants also agreed to forfeit two vehicles and more than $300,000 cash.  

“At the expense of the integrity and fairness of the government contracting process, these defendants resorted to bribery and corruption simply to line their own pockets,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould.  “The diligent work of our law enforcement partners led to a successful prosecution of these fraudsters by my office.  This outcome should serve as a warning to others contemplating such behavior, that we will hold every person accountable for fraud schemes of this nature.” 

“The public must have confidence that Postal Service employees will conduct their work in an honest manner,” said Kevin Cloninger, Executive Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General. “When employees commit serious offenses, such as taking bribes, they will be aggressively investigated and prosecuted by Special Agents with the USPS OIG. We thank our law enforcement partners in this case at the United States Attorney’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for assuring that there is no place for public corruption anywhere within the Postal Service.”

“The defendants fraudulently secured a government contract in a scheme that involved paying kickbacks to government employees, who misused their positions of trust with the U.S. Postal Service for personal gain,” said FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge R. Joseph Rothrock. “The FBI remains committed to holding accountable individuals that defraud the United States government.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office and U.S. Postal Service, Office of Inspector General conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Marty Basu prosecuted the case.