A former employee of the US Postal Service has pleaded guilty to fraud charges involving bribes from trucking companies in exchange for contracts. 

Tai Rho worked as a Network Specialist for USPS in Colorado with the ability to manipulate trucking contracts awarded by the USPS. Court documents show that Rho received bribes from at least two trucking companies, one in Texas and one in Colorado, in exchange for these contracts. 

According to 9 News, Rho received almost $300,000 in kickbacks from a trucking company for one contract, and met a representative of another trucking company in a parking lot multiple times to receive cash in exchange for the contract.  

“It was the purpose and abject of the conspiracy for Rho… to solicit and receive bribes… in exchange for Rho… influencing the USPS to award service contracts to shipping companies,” court documents read. 

Rho represented the USPS in a deposition related to a lawsuit regarding the 2022 Weld County, Colorado crash that killed five, sent a driver to prison, and implicated a trucking company working under contract with the USPS, Caminantes Trucking. Rho has not been directly linked to the fatal crash, but was determined to be “the postal service administrative official responsible for the day-to-day monitoring of the contract [with Caminantes Trucking.]”

The USPS has since claimed government immunity in the Weld County wreck. Rho entered a plea agreement in the Northern District of Texas. The USPS has not commented on the plea agreement and has directed all questions to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Texas.