Former Northeast Iowa Postmaster Sentenced to Federal Probation in Wire Fraud Scheme

A former northeast Iowa postmaster has been sentenced to five years of federal probation and eight months of home confinement. 

 In a plea agreement and at her sentencing hearing, 43-year-old Merri Burgart of Hazelton admitted that she stole over $16,000 from the United States Postal Service (“USPS”) in about 2023, while she was the postmaster in Waverly..  Burgart made false entries in the USPS’s 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.  Prosecutors note that Burgart earned nearly $100,000 a year at the time she was stealing from the USPS.

 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’s criminal conflict of interest.  Between August 2022 and September 2023, Burgart caused the USPS to pay more than $2,500 for lawn mowing services by means of that funnel account. 

In May, Burgart, formerly known as Merri Bentley, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. On Monday (Oct 26), she was sentenced by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams to five years of probation, including eight months of home confinement.  She was also ordered to make over $16,000 in restitution to the USPS and fined $4,000.

Burgart has a significant criminal history with six prior state convictions. Among them, theft from families while she was providing hospice care in their own homes in 2005; and a 2025 conviction of OWI.