OKLAHOMA CITY – A U.S. Post Office employee who admitted embezzling postal funds and making false postal record entries received a two-year term of probation and was ordered to reimburse the U.S. Postal Service $2,950.
James Bryan Barnes, 53, of Norman, also was ordered by U.S. District Judge David L. Russell to serve 72 days of incarceration on weekends and to pay $600 in special assessment fees.
Barnes had been employed by the USPS for three decades and was the lead sales and service associate at the Midwest City Branch Post Office when he conducted a scheme to steal postal funds by taking cash for stamps without properly accounting for the sales, court records reflect.
At the time, Barnes – a 1995 University of Oklahoma graduate in public relations – was earning $62,000 per year in salary working the post office retail counter, selling stamps and operating a cash register, records show.
He was charged with one count of embezzlement of postal funds in excess of $1,000, one count of theft of government money in excess of $1,000, and four counts of making false entries in USPS records.
A federal jury convicted Barnes on those six counts on July 11, 2019. The jury heard that Barnes made false record entries into his cash register at least 178 times from October 2015 through June 2018 and stole almost $3,000 belonging to the Postal Service.
Barnes has worked for American Wholesale Hemp in Oklahoma City as “operations director” since Sept. 9, 2018, at a salary of $60,000 per year, court records relate.