A Tamaqua man has been indicted for scheming to defraud fellow members of the postal carrier union out of overtime compensation.

Acting United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams announced that Joseph Whitbeck, 55, was charged with wire fraud and honest services wire fraud stemming from his operation to defraud fellow union members out of rightfully earned overtime compensation.

The indictment says Whitbeck, while serving as the vice president for the Local 274 branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers in the Lehigh Valley area, operated a kickback scheme involving certain letter carriers at the Allentown Post Office.

As the vice president, Whitbeck filed numerous grievances on behalf of groups of letter carriers, claiming that U.S. Postal Service managers violated overtime rules.

Court papers say Whitbeck settled these class-action grievances for total lump sums, without designating the specific individuals to whom overtime grievance payments were owed, so that he could select the payees at a later time.

Meanwhile, according to the indictment, Whitbeck offered to secure extra overtime grievance payouts for some letter carriers who agreed to kick back a portion directly to him, generally in cash.

This scheme prevented non-participating letter carriers from receiving overtime grievance funds to which they were entitled.

The indictment also says Whitbeck made false and misleading statements to convince letter carriers to participate in his scheme. For example, Whitbeck told letter carriers that he would use the kick-backed funds to assist other letter carriers who were out of work.

The indictment says the scheme, which lasted more than a decade, was uncovered when a concerned letter carrier raised the issue at a union executive board meeting in March 2018.

“Union representatives are supposed to act in the best interest of the union members, not manipulate them into participating in fraud,” said Williams.

“Joseph Whitbeck failed in his fiduciary duties and betrayed the trust of the members of Letter Carriers Branch 274 and the union itself by using his union position to enrich himself,” said Andriana Vamvakas, regional director for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.

If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum possible sentence of 400 years imprisonment, a $5 million fine, three years supervised release, and a $2,000 special assessment.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Service – Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General, and the U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Labor-Management Standards, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Patrick J. Murray.