The U.S. Postal Service has paid Postmaster General Louis DeJoy‘s former company millions in recent weeks.
A public records request by the New York Times showed the company XPO Logistics and its subsidiaries received $14 million in the past 10 weeks, compared to in 2019 when it received $3.4 million during the same period, and $4.7 million in 2018.
DeJoy served as the chief executive of the supply chain business and board member until 2018.
An XPO Logistics spokesperson told The Hill that the payments were part of a contracted signed last December, nearly half a year prior to DeJoy being named postmaster.
The company is paid by USPS to manage transportation and provide support during peak times, according to the records. DeJoy has maintained his stake in XPO, valued between $30 to $75 million.
“I have a significant investment in XPO Logistics, which I vetted before with the ethics department of the Postal Service, and I was given specific types of guidelines that I needed to adhere to,” DeJoy told House legislators. “It’s a very, very small part of the Postal Service business I have nothing to do with.”
A Postal Service spokesperson, David Partenheimer, told The Hill that DeJoy has recused himself from making decisions regarding XPO.
“The Postmaster General correctly stated that he has ‘nothing to do with’ XPO’s contracts with the Postal Service,” Partenheimer said. “The contracting officers making contracting decisions about work with XPO are many levels below the CEO on the organization chart.”
He noted that the contracts “represent a very small part of the Postal Service’s business,” and that XPO was “not one of our top 50 contractors last year or this year.”
