According to the Office of the Inspector General, on January 17, 2014, Wisla Exprexx, LLC, of New Britain, Connecticut, was fined $75,000 and sentenced the company to five years of probation for submitting falsified log books to the FMCSA.
In addition, Wisla’s owners, Elzbieta Szteborowski and manager Dariusz Szteborowski, were ordered to give up ownership of Wisla during the duration of the probation period. The court has also prohibited the Szeborowskis from collecting any profit from the company during the probation period.
Wisla came under fire after an investigation revealed that Szteborowski “created and maintained false and fraudulent driver time records or caused others to create false and fraudulent driver logs in order to meet the prescribed reporting requirements.”
The Office of the Inspector General found that Szteborowski often assigned drivers to loads, knowing that the drivers would be exceeding HOS limits.
“In order to hide these violations from FMCSA inspectors, Szteborowski instructed the drivers and/or other Wisla employees to record falsely in the logs that the driver was off-duty during those times, and then Szteborowski submitted the falsified logs to FMCSA during its inspection,” the OIG stated.
Wisla is a passenger carrier. Wisla’s office Manager, Dariusz Szteborowski, of Rocky Hill, Connecticut, previously entered a guilty plea in connection with the scheme.
The investigation was conducted with assistance from FMCSA.