New Jersey trucking company owner charged for kickback scheme

The co-owner of a New Jersey trucking company has been indicted on charges related to an alleged years-long kickback scheme to defraud another company.

On April 21, 43 year old Juller Perez was indicted on charges of engaging in a kickback scheme to defraud a company with operations in Greene County, from at least 2015 to 2019, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York.

Authorities describe the scheme:

According to the indictment, from at least 2015 to 2019, Perez co-owned a trucking company in New Jersey that transported products as a third-party contractor for a bedding company with a distribution facility in West Coxsackie, New York. As part of the fraudulent scheme, Perez paid kickbacks to the transportation manager of the bedding company in exchange for the use of the bedding company’s trucks and drivers to transport merchandise from West Coxsackie to Perez’s truck yard in Clifton, New Jersey, which allowed Perez to avoid certain transportation costs. Perez then fraudulently invoiced and received payment from the bedding company as if his trucking company had transported and delivered the merchandise from West Coxsackie when Perez and his trucking company transported the merchandise only from the Clifton, New Jersey location.

If convicted, Perez faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to 3 years.

The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation and the FBI.