Sky Lease Cargo, a small all-cargo operator based at Miami International Airport, has agreed to pay more than $1 million to resolve allegations that it manipulated data about the transport of mail to U.S. diplomatic or military posts, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
Sky Lease I Inc., the company’s legally registered name, had contracts with the U.S. Postal Service to pick pick up mail bins at overseas Department of Defense and State Department locations and deliver the mail to numerous international and domestic destinations. To obtain payments under the contracts, Sky Lease was required to submit electronic scans of the mail receptacles to the Postal Service reporting the time the mail was delivered at the designated destinations. The settlement resolves allegations that scans submitted by Sky Lease falsely reported the time that it transferred possession of the mail.
Sky Lease Cargo operates two Boeing 747-400 freighter aircraft, according to the Planespotters database. The airline subleased its main terminal at Miami airport in early April and terminated 129 employees, including 88 full-time workers, according to a required notice filed with the Florida Department of Commerce earlier this year. The carrier currently operates between Miami and Zhengzhou, China, from a different location at Miami airport, a sales agent who answered the phone said.
The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General originally investigated the alleged fraud.
The case resembles ones that previously ensnared United Airlines, American Airlines and UPS. The airlines falsified the time stamps to avoid financial penalties for not meeting on-time delivery requirements and other specifications.
“The Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that government contractors provide the services they have contracted to provide,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “When contractors knowingly fail to provide services for which they have been paid, the Department of Justice will pursue appropriate remedies to redress the violations and deter future ones.”
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