Louis DeJoy family businesses could rake in $23.7 million from Postal Service contractor

The U.S. Postal Service will pay $120 million over the next five years to a contractor that postmaster general Louis DeJoy once led and in which his family still holds a stake, according to newly revealed documents.

Financial disclosure statements show DeJoy's family businesses still lease four North Carolina office buildings to XPO Logistics, where DeJoy previously served as supply chain chief executive, and those agreements could generate up to $23.7 million in rent payments to DeJoy businesses over the next 10 years, reported the Washington Post.

"There's no question he's continuing to profit from a Postal Service contractor," said Virginia Canter, chief ethics counsel at watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "He can comply with these technical legal requirements … but it does create an appearance issue about whether it's in his financial interest to continue to make policy that would benefit contractors like XPO."

DeJoy-controlled companies and his family foundation have divested $65.4 million and $155.3 million in XPO shares since becoming postmaster general, and the leases to XPO were cleared by ethics officials before he took office in June 2020 because the properties were rented to a contractor and not the Postal Service.

A Postal Service spokesman said DeJoy did not take part in the procurement process for the XPO contract, which was competitively bid.