Des Moines post office scam leads to postmaster's firing, but she gets unemployment benefits

Des Moines Postmaster Cheryl Love was fired early this year after she was accused of failing to investigate a long-running scam that cost the U.S. Postal Service more than $100,000.

State unemployment records indicate Love, who was named Des Moines’ 35th postmaster in 2013, was fired from the federal agency in February.

She was accused of failing to investigate concerns that a local employee of the Postal Service was embezzling money through a scheme that involved the use of money orders issued at a south-side post office between October 2014 and March 2016.

According to state records, Love’s superiors repeatedly alerted her to the suspicious nature of the money orders, but she failed to investigate the matter.

Those records indicate the scheme, attributed to postal clerk Brenda Robinson, resulted in the loss of $160,000. However, the Postal Service's Office of Inspector General has said the total loss is estimated to be $100,668.

Last October, a federal grand jury indicted Robinson on charges of embezzlement and theft of government property. In May, Robinson agreed to enter a plea of guilty to one count of theft of government property.

Court records indicate Robinson used at least 196 money orders to issue fake refunds for non-existent customer purchases, then used those money orders to pay her personal living expenses. She had worked for the Postal Service for 32 years before she was fired in 2016.

She is expected to be sentenced in October, and her attorney has asked the court to consider probation, stating that Robinson used the stolen money to offset losses she incurred after entering into a relationship with a man who "promised her the world," but was in fact "stealing her money and spending it on himself."

Postal officials allegedly became aware of the theft in January 2016, and in April 2016, they directed Love to immediately place a customer service manager who also was one of Love’s close friends on emergency leave, pending an investigation into her conduct.

The Postal Service later claimed Love failed to act on the order for two days and that she subsequently used the customer service manager's password and credentials to log into the agency’s computers.

State records indicate there is a dispute as to why Love took that action, but that there’s no dispute she did so, violating Postal Service policy in the process. The customer service manager has not been charged with a crime.

Love did not respond to The Des Moines Register’s questions on the matter, and the customer service manager, who no longer works for the Postal Service, said she needed to speak to a lawyer before answering any questions.

State records indicate that in September 2016, the Postal Service was still investigating the money-order scheme and placed Love in “training mode,” a move that enabled her to retain her employment, but effectively relieved her of her duties as postmaster.

In December 2016, she was allegedly suspended, and in February of this year, she was fired, according to the records.

After Love was fired, she applied for unemployment benefits. The federal government challenged her claim, accusing her of misconduct and neglecting her duties.

At a hearing, Love explained that she had expected one of her managers — who was disciplined as a result of the Postal Services’ investigation — to look into the suspicious money orders.

Administrative Law Judge Jennifer Beckman subsequently awarded Love unemployment benefits, noting that the Postal Service disciplined Love several months after it first learned of her actions.

Under Iowa law, a fired worker typically is entitled to unemployment benefits, even in cases of misconduct, if the termination follows the discovery of the employee’s actions by more than two weeks.

“The employer cannot, on one hand, argue that the conduct was so egregious that it warranted discharge instead of a lesser penalty, but then allow the (employee) to continue working for almost six months before determining she should be discharged,” Beckman ruled. “While the employer may have been justified in discharging (Love), work-connected misconduct as defined by the Iowa unemployment insurance law has not been established in this case.”

The Postal Service's Office of Inspector General has issued reports identifying vulnerabilities in the money-order system and called for reform.

Two months ago, the office reported that a post office in Connecticut was responsible for the second-largest amount of money order refunds in the nation, totaling $36,865 between October 2015 and December 2016, and wasn’t adhering to rules intended to guard against theft.

A 2013 report from the inspector general concluded that the Postal Service’s oversight of money orders was “not sufficient to detect fraud in a timely manner. Specifically, the Postal Service does not sufficiently monitor money-order transactions at retail units and make investigative referrals of potential fraud.

"… The OIG has detected a substantial number of embezzlement cases since fiscal year 2010 not detected by Postal Service controls. Without adequate monitoring of money order transactions by management, abuses, errors, and misappropriation of Postal Service assets may go undetected.”

Love was a 33-year employee of the Postal Service, having begun her career as a letter carrier in Omaha, Neb., in 1984.

As Des Moines’ postmaster, she oversaw the delivery of mail to more than 200,000 customers in the metro area and was responsible for more than 500 employees.