Colorado Postal Service Employee Pleads Guilty After Faking Cancer – Claimed Hundreds of Hours of Sick Leave

Postal Service Employee Pleads Guilty After Faking Cancer in Order to Work from Home and Claim Hundreds of Hours of Sick Leave

DENVER –  4/28/17 – Caroline Zarate Boyle, age 59, of Highlands Ranch, Colorado, a U.S. Postal Service employee, pled guilty today to presenting a forged writing to the United States with the intent to defraud after fabricating to her employer that she had cancer in order to work from home and claim hundreds of hours of sick leave. The guilty plea occurred before U.S. District Court Judge Raymond P. Moore, Acting U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer and U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General Special Agent in Charge (USPS OIG) Scott Pierce announced.

Boyle was first charged by Criminal Complaint on March 3, 2017. She was indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver on March 16, 2017. She pled guilty today, April 28, 2017. Boyle is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Moore on July 25, 2017 at 9:00 a.m.

According to the Factual Basis for the Change of Plea, Boyle, a U.S. Postal Service employee, decided to take some time off of work after she was not selected for a promotion she had sought. To take the time off she told her supervisor that she was recently diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, when in fact she did not have any type of cancer. She then began to take substantial amounts of sick leave.

Boyle continued the ruse until she was interviewed by an agent of the Postal Service’s Office of the Inspector General. It was determined in the approximate 20 months that the defendant’s fraud lasted, she used her non-existent cancer treatment to support both unwarranted sick leave and unwarranted accommodations allowing her to work part-time or work from home five days a week. The defendant intended to continue using the fake illness until her scheduled retirement in April 2017. Despite claiming the cancer treatment had her too sick to work a regular schedule or come into the office, Boyle was planning a post-retirement cruise in Hawaii.

In support of her ruse, Boyle emailed her supervisor notes from two different doctors (at least four notes total), indicating that she was receiving cancer treatment. However, the notes were created by the defendant herself. Investigators learned that she was not a patient of either doctor.

The charge Boyle pled guilty to carries a penalty of up to 10 years in federal prison and up to a $250,000 fine.

This case is being investigated by the U.S. Postal Service’s Office of the Inspector General and is being prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Burrows.

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