WAVERLY — A former Waverly postmaster who admitted stealing more than $16,000 through bogus mileage reimbursements was sentenced October 26, 2026, to five years of probation and eight months of home confinement, marking her sixth theft-related conviction.
Merri Ann Burgart, 43, formerly known as Merri Ann Bentley, pleaded guilty May 13, 2026, to one count of wire fraud. Chief U.S. District Judge C.J. Williams sentenced her in Cedar Rapids and ordered her to repay $16,404.86 to the United States Postal Service and pay a $4,000 fine.
According to federal prosecutors, Burgart admitted in her plea agreement and at sentencing that she entered false information into the USPS travel mileage system in 2023. The entries sought reimbursement for rural mail deliveries she claimed to have made using a personal vehicle.
One claim sought payment for 727 miles supposedly driven on Waverly’s “Route 1” on August 19, 2023. Prosecutors said the claim was false and resulted in a reimbursement Burgart was not entitled to receive.
Burgart was earning nearly $100,000 annually while stealing from the Postal Service, prosecutors said.
She also admitted arranging a separate payment scheme involving lawn mowing services. In 2022, Burgart recruited a former postmaster to establish a bank account used to conceal her criminal conflict of interest, according to the federal account of the case.
Between August 2022 and September 2023, she caused USPS to pay more than $2,500 for mowing services through that account, concealing her conflict of interest involving the people who ultimately received the money.
Prosecutors outlined five previous theft convictions. In 2005, Burgart worked as an in-home hospice caregiver and repeatedly stole from families while caring for patients in their homes.
She also had a 2025 conviction for operating while intoxicated. Officers responded to a dispute at a bar where Burgart was beating on a Jeep outside, according to prosecutors. Officers later found her driving with a blood alcohol content of .121.
Burgart received probation in all six of those earlier state cases — five theft convictions and the OWI conviction. The new federal wire fraud conviction is her sixth theft-related conviction.
NIT has covered other federal fraud cases in the region, including a former Iowa judicial employee sentenced for stealing money intended for children and a Waterloo manager sentenced for stealing millions from his employer.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy L. Vavricek prosecuted Burgart’s case. The USPS Office of Inspector General conducted the investigation.