A Pakistani national has been charged with defrauding the United States Postal Service (USPS) of $125 million by selling counterfeit postage labels online, it emerged on Friday.

According to a press release by the US Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Florida, issued on Monday on the website of the Department of Justice (DOJ), a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging a Pakistani national, a 33-year-old from Khanewal, with operating “an unauthorised website that allegedly sold more than five million counterfeit US postage labels”.

According to court records, these were sold at a fixed rate, “typically $2 per label”, regardless of the size, weight or destination of the package in question. This allowed customers to post items for cheap at rates “far below legitimate USPS prices”.

The statement also pointed out that the website used for this purpose was not authorised to sell USPS products and services.

The investigation revealed that over 5,200 individuals used the website to buy more than 5.1m counterfeit shipping labels. The losses caused to the service as a result were reported to be over $126m, the press release highlighted.

“Through the work of the US Postal Inspection Service and our prosecutors, the website has been shut down, the domain seized, and federal charges brought against its alleged operator,” US Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida said, according to the press release.

He termed the alleged scheme “simple but massive”.

According to the statement, the accused is charged with “one count of conspiracy to defraud the US and to make and sell counterfeit postage stamps; five counts of making and selling counterfeit postage stamp labels; and four counts of wire fraud”.

If convicted, he faces a maximum of five years in prison on the counts of conspiracy to defraud and sell counterfeit postage stamps, as well as 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud.

“An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law,” the DOJ added.

In February, two Pakistani nationals were indicted in the US for their alleged role in a $10m healthcare fraud scheme that targeted Medicare and private insurance programmes.