New Jersey trucking company owner sentenced for kickback conspiracy, tax evasion

A New Jersey trucking company owner was sentenced last week on charges related to wire fraud kickback conspiracy and tax evasion.

On June 7, 2024, Juller Perez Salcedo, 45, was sentenced to three years of probation, including 6 months of home detention, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York.

Perez Salcedo previously admitted to conspiring to commit wire fraud and honest services fraud, and tax evasion as part of a plea deal.

Perez Salcedo co-owned a trucking company in New Jersey that operated as a third-party contractor for a bedding company that had a distribution center in West Coxsackie, New York.

Officials say that between 2015 and 2019, “Perez Salcedo paid kickbacks to the transportation manager of the bedding company, Leonard Hummel, in exchange for the use of the bedding company’s trucks and drivers to transport merchandise from West Coxsackie to Perez Salcedo’s truck yard in Clifton, New Jersey, which allowed Perez Salcedo to avoid certain transportation costs. Perez Salcedo 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 Salcedo and his trucking company did not in fact transport the merchandise from West Coxsackie. As a result of the scheme, Perez Salcedo caused $422,170.86 in losses to the bedding company.”

Authorities also accuse Perez Salcedo of a tax evasion scheme that took place between January 2014 and April 2018 that netted $477,090 in evaded tax.

As part of the scheme, Perez Salcedo reportedly cashed gross receipts checks on behalf of his trucking business, provided false and incomplete information to tax preparers and omitting the cashed checks, and filed false federal income tax returns.

Perez Salcedo was also ordered to pay $422,170 in restitution to the bedding company and $477,090 to the IRS in addition to forfeiture of $422,170 in proceeds derived from the fraud.

Hummel also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years of probation for conspiring to commit wire fraud and honest services fraud. Hummel was ordered to pay $161,784 in restitution to the bedding company ordered to forfeit $17,000.

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