Fraudulent bills of lading, false statements to FMSCA, and disaster fraud accusations lead to federal charges for two Kentucky residents

Two Louisville, Kentucky, residents were indicted on charges related to conspiracy, fraud, and identity theft, according to authorities.

On January 18, 2023, Yeniseis Saavedra, 32, and Alien Saavedra, 33, were indicted by a federal grand jury in Louisville, Kentucky on one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and of aiding and abetting disaster fraud, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky.

Authorities say that the pair conspired to defraud freight factoring companies by submitting false bills of lading.

The two defendants are also accused of with filing for lost wage assistance payments on behalf of Alien Saavedra while Alien Saavedra was actually employed and being paid in the motor carrier industry.

Yeniseis Saavedra faces additional charges, including “making a false statement to the United States Department of Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration when she falsely filed an application on behalf of another, C.S., claiming that C.S. was going to operate a trucking company. However, C.S. was not aware of the application filing, and Yeniseis Saavedra was operating the company.”

Yeniseis Saavedra was additionally charged with disaster fraud for filing for lost wage assistance payments on behalf of C.S. Authorities say that C.S. was not aware of this filing either and did not receive any lost wage payments. Instead, those payments allegedly went into a bank account controlled by Yeniseis Saavedra.

Authorities also charged Yeniseis Saavedra with  aggravated identity theft for using the identity and social security number of C.S. without C.S.’s authorization to obtain the lost wage assistance payments.   

If convicted, Yeniseis Saavedra faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 2 years in prison and a maximum sentence of 87 years in prison. Alien Saavedraaces could face a maximum sentence of 50 years in prison.

The case was investigated by the United States Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General and the United States Postal Inspection Service with the assistance of the United States Department of Labor.