Bainville woman ordered to repay over $8,000 for cashing fake post office money orders

GREAT FALLS - A Bainville woman who used a system of recording fake USPS money orders that she then cashed out to herself was sentenced today to time-served, followed by three years of supervised release, Acting U.S. Attorney Mark Steger Smith said. She was also ordered to repay USPS the amount of money she misappropriated.

Danielle Marie Harms, 38, pleaded guilty in February 2026 to one count of misappropriation of postal funds.

Chief U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris presided.

The government alleged in court documents that Harms stole more than $8,000 from the U.S. Postal Service as an employee of the Bainville Post Office by issuing fake money orders and then cashing them.

Harms began working for the post office in Bainville in February 2023. Bainville is one of the country's few remaining "manual" post offices, meaning money orders issued by the office are written down by hand on paper for USPS transaction records. If the money order is purchased by credit or debit card a record of the purchase is also submitted electronically to the bank after it's been written down on paper.

After learning the system, Harms began issuing money orders to herself and her boyfriend, recording them by hand as card transactions but never submitting the information to the bank. This allowed her to cash the money order while keeping the books balanced within the post office. USPS employs a service that regularly checks the postal service's transactions with the bank to ensure the figures reconcile. Running one of these checks in August 2024, the service found a discrepancy of $8,235.91.

This launched an investigation and in January 2025 a special agent with the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General interviewed Harms, who eventually admitted to faking and cashing 34 money orders. She also admitted to taking cash from the post office till.

The U.S. Attorney's Office prosecuted the case. The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General conducted the investigation.