Orlando Trucking Owner Pleads Guilty in USPS Freight Fraud

The owner of an Orlando trucking company pleaded guilty to charges that he collected payments from the U.S. Postal Service for hauling jobs he did not carry out, CDLLife reported, citing an Oct. 9 statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida.

Khayyam Arif Oglu Farajov, 40, who ran Talishco LLC, admitted to a wire fraud count and a money laundering count. Under the plea, he will repay the Postal Service $993,979.

Prosecutors said Farajov enrolled in the Postal Service's Freight Auction program in May 2022 to haul bulk mail and was awarded hundreds of contracts from June 2022 to January 2023. They said he regularly left the jobs undone, telling postal staff he had lost touch with drivers or that they were behind schedule, which forced reassignment of the loads to other carriers. Authorities said he then went into the platform and falsely recorded the loads as delivered, prompting payment.

Officials said the scheme brought in roughly $1 million, which he passed through shell companies he owned and consolidated in two personal brokerage accounts, then put into stocks. The government followed the money and seized what was in the accounts.

Each count carries up to 20 years behind bars. No sentencing date has been set. The Postal Service's Office of Inspector General investigated.

This story was first reported by CDLLife.