United States (US) authorities are seeking a Pakistani man they accuse of running a counterfeit postage operation that cost the US Postal Service more than $126 million (Over 34 billion Pakistani rupees).
They are offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to his arrest and conviction.
Faheem Akram, 33, from Khanewal in Punjab, faces charges from a federal grand jury in Florida, which indicted him last month.
Prosecutors say he ran LabelsBank.com, a website that sold more than 5.1 million counterfeit shipping labels to thousands of customers. Authorities have seized control of the website and shut it down.
The US Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), the federal agency that investigates crimes involving the US mail, has issued a wanted notice for Akram. The agency warned the public not to try to apprehend him.
“We shut down his website. Now we need your help finding him,” US Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones said in a social media post on Monday.
“If you know where he is, call Postal Inspectors,” he added.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida announced the charges last month. Prosecutors say the scheme let customers send packages through the postal system for a fraction of the legitimate cost.
Court records cited by the Justice Department say LabelsBank.com sold counterfeit US postage at a fixed price, typically $2 per label, regardless of a package’s weight, size or destination. The website had no authorization to sell USPS products or services.
Postal inspectors say more than 5,000 customers bought over 5.1 million counterfeit labels from the site. They say the discounted shipping caused more than $126 million in lost revenue and shipping costs to the postal service.
Akram faces one count of conspiracy to defraud the US and to make and sell counterfeit postage stamps, five counts of making and selling counterfeit postage labels, and four counts of wire fraud.
If convicted, he faces a maximum of five years in prison on the conspiracy and counterfeit-postage counts and up to 20 years on each wire-fraud count, according to the Justice Department. An indictment contains allegations, and Akram is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
The Postal Inspection Service’s Miami Division is investigating the case.
US authorities have not said where Akram is believed to be. The USPIS notice asks anyone with information to contact postal inspectors and says it will keep that information confidential.
