According to the Department of Justice, a Connecticut man has been sentenced to jail for falsifying and destroying driver logs.
This week, U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson sentenced Dariusz Szteborowski, manager of Wisla Express, to 14 months in prison, followed by 3 years supervised release.
In addition, Wisila Express has been sentence to five years of probation and has been ordered to pay a $75,000 fine.
Wisla Express operates out of New Britain, Connecticut. The company transports people to and from airports and operates tour buses.
Szteborowski managed Wisla and was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the company.
The Department of Justice says that between September 2008 and September 2010, Szteborowski was responsible for scheduling and assigning drivers to trips, and he would assign drivers to trips, knowing the drivers were in excess of their allowable driving hours.
Between September 2008 and September 2010, Szteborowski scheduled and assigned drivers to trips knowing that the drivers would be exceeding the regulated limits of on-duty driving time, and also instructed drivers and others to falsify driving logs by recording that the drivers were off-duty during times when they were, in fact, driving.
Szteborowski would then instruct drivers to submit separate pay sheets and notes that accurately detailed their hours. SZTEBOROWSKI then destroyed the pay sheets and other documentation that accurately recorded the drivers’ hours.
“Wisla Express drivers, at Mr. Szteborowski’s direction, routinely drove many more hours than allowed by federal transportation safety regulations,” stated U.S. Attorney Daly. “Mr. Szteborowski then attempted to cover up these violations by submitting numerous false driver logs to federal regulators. Driver safety regulations for commercial motor vehicle carriers exist to protect not only passengers, but everyone who travels our nation’s roads. We believe that this investigation and prosecution may have prevented a highway tragedy caused by fatigued drivers, and we hope that this sentence will serve as fair warning to other commercial operators.”
In August 2010, the FMCSA requested the company’s drivers’ logs. Szteborowski gave the FMCSA investigators fraudulent driver’s logs.
On February 22, 2013, Szteborowski pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement to the U.S. DOT.
During his three-year term of supervised release, Szteborowski cannot be involved, directly or indirectly, with Wisla Express or any other business under the jurisdiction of the U.S. DOT.