A Lonaconing woman pleaded guilty today to counterfeiting metered postage, according to the Maryland U.S. Attorney's office.

According to the statement of facts presented to the court, Julie Hoffman, 32, owns and operates Hoffman Candles and Hoffman Mailing Solutions in Lonaconing and mailed about 1,000 envelopes and packages daily for individual customers and businesses. Hoffman advertised that she could mail any item from Hoffman Candles to anywhere in the country, regardless of the weight or size of the item, for 20 cents, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

In 2003, Hoffman began to counterfeit metered U.S. postage by printing a legitimate set of postage from Stamps.com and Endicia.com. She then made copies of the postage on her own labels. Hoffman gave the counterfeit postage to her employees to use in mailing packages and letters, but did not tell them that the postage was counterfeit. Within a couple years, she was counterfeiting almost all of the postage in her business. As a result of the scheme, the Postal Service lost at least $251,011.90, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

Hoffman faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Sentencing is scheduled for April 6.
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