{"id":40496,"date":"2026-10-29T11:22:33","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T16:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=40496"},"modified":"2026-10-29T11:22:33","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T16:22:33","slug":"former-waverly-ia-postmaster-sentenced-in-wire-fraud-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2026\/10\/29\/former-waverly-ia-postmaster-sentenced-in-wire-fraud-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Waverly, IA Postmaster Sentenced in Wire Fraud Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Federal Conviction is her Sixth Theft Related Conviction<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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10\/28\/26 – The former postmaster of Waverly, Iowa, was sentenced on October 26, 2026, to five years of probation and eight months of home confinement.<\/p>\n

Merri Ann Burgart, formerly known as Merri Ann Bentley, age 43, from Hazelton, Iowa, received the sentence after a May 13, 2026, guilty plea to one count of wire fraud.<\/p>\n

In a plea agreement and at her sentencing hearing, Burgart admitted that she stole over $16,000 from the United States Postal Service (\u201cUSPS\u201d) in about 2023.\u00a0 Burgart made false entries in the USPS\u2019s travel mileage system in order to obtain reimbursements for fictitious mileage that she allegedly incurred while delivering mail on rural routes in a personal vehicle.\u00a0 For example, on August 19, 2023, Burgart falsely claimed reimbursement for 727 miles she had allegedly driven on \u201cRoute 1\u201d in the Waverly area, which was not true, and as a result she received mileage reimbursement to which she was not entitled.\u00a0 Burgart earned nearly $100,000 a year at the time she was stealing from the USPS.<\/p>\n

In her plea agreement, Burgart also admitted that, in 2022, she recruited a former postmaster to set up a funnel bank account to conceal Burgart\u2019s criminal conflict of interest.\u00a0 Between August 2022, and September 2023, Burgart caused the USPS to pay more than $2,500 for lawn mowing services by means of the funnel account and in spite of Burgart\u2019s conflict of interest with the ultimate recipients of the funds.<\/p>\n

Burgart has a significant criminal history.\u00a0 Burgart has five prior theft convictions.\u00a0 In 2005, Burgart was working as an in-home hospice worker and repeatedly stole from families while she was providing care to hospice patients in their own homes.\u00a0 In 2025, Burgart was convicted of operating while intoxicated.\u00a0 Law enforcement officers responded to a dispute at a bar, outside of which Burgart was beating on a Jeep.\u00a0 Officers later found Burgart was driving a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol content of .121.\u00a0 Burgart received probationary sentences in state court for all six of these prior state court convictions.<\/p>\n

Burgart was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams.\u00a0 Burgart was sentenced to five years of probation, including eight months of home confinement.\u00a0 She was ordered to make $16,404.86 in restitution to the USPS and fined $4,000.<\/p>\n

On April 7, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division. The core mission of the Fraud Division is to zealously investigate and prosecute those who steal or fraudulently misuse taxpayer dollars.\u00a0 Department of Justice efforts to combat fraud support President Trump\u2019s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs.<\/p>\n

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Timothy L. Vavricek and investigated by the United States Postal Service, Office of Inspector General.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Federal Conviction is her Sixth Theft Related Conviction 10\/28\/26 – The former postmaster of Waverly, Iowa, was sentenced on October 26, 2026, to five years of probation and eight months of home confinement. Merri Ann Burgart, formerly known as Merri Ann Bentley, age 43, from Hazelton, Iowa, received the sentence after a May 13, 2026, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,72,89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-theftandfraud","category-postal-crime","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40497,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40496\/revisions\/40497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}