Ex-Postal Official Gets 4 Years for Receiving Contract Payoffs

Peter Voss, the former vice chairman of the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors, was sentenced Friday to four years in prison for embezzlement and receiving payoffs in connection with a postal contract.

U.S. District Judge George H. Revercomb sentenced Voss, who was co-chairman of President Reagan’s Ohio campaign in 1980, to two years in prison on each of two counts of accepting an illegal gratuity in connection with a $250-million mail-sorting equipment contract.

Voss also received six months on one count of embezzling money from the Postal Service by submitting vouchers for first-class airline tickets that he did not use. The sentence for embezzlement is to run concurrently with the four-year term.

Fined $11,000

Voss, who also was fined $11,000, will begin his prison term in 30 days at a minimum-security federal prison yet to be chosen.

In a court appearance, Voss said that at an early stage in the government’s investigation of postal corruption earlier this year, he came forward and informed federal investigators of his illegal activities.

“Conscience has no place to hide and that’s certainly true in my case,” said Voss, a Canton, Ohio, businessman.

Revercomb told Voss: “The sentence may seem to you and to some others a severe one.” But he said Voss had harmed the Postal Service and the American public and that “you had the benefit of a plea bargain. Without the plea, you would be facing a substantially longer sentence.”

Fee-Splitting Plan

In documents filed by prosecutors in federal court, Voss was accused of taking at least $20,000 worth of payoffs in a fee-splitting arrangement with a public relations firm hired on Voss’ recommendation by Recognition Equipment Inc. of Irving, Tex.

The president of the public relations company, John Gnau, pleaded guilty a week ago to conspiring with Voss to subvert the postal procurement process and to passing along to Voss some of the payments Gnau received from REI.

REI is still in the running for the mail-sorting equipment contract, which prosecutors estimated would be worth $8 billion over 10 years when maintenance and other costs are included.

The government alleged in documents filed in court last week that Voss also used his official position to benefit Gnau’s business dealings in at least four other schemes.