A trucking company has been found guilty after bribing FedEx employees to help deceive the shipping giant about violating policies.
Salt Lake Trucking Group (SLTG) was found guilty of fraud charges on Friday, February 2nd. The company reportedly received $108 million from FedEx through deceptive practices over a decade, reported Gephardt Daily.
SLTG in North Salt Lake, Utah were contracted companies that picked up and delivered FedEx trailers. The defendants and conspirators engaged in deceptive practices to hide the fact that they were violating several FedEx policies, including bribing FedEx employees to “help deceive FedEx and cover up their violations.”
The deceptive practices used included creating shell companies and lying to FedEx about the fact that these companies were owned by SLTG and were sharing trucks, employees, owners, and other assets. Over $320,000 was also used to bribe FedEx employees for extra shipping runs and to lie about the company.
“Before they delivered packages, these men and their teammates delivered cash bribes,” said Stephen Dent, Assistant U.S. Attorney. “Before their trucks pulled away from the hub to go on a run, they lied and they bribed to even get that run, $108 million by cheating.”
“The defendants and their co-conspirators also lied to FedEx about dozens of SLTG drivers’ qualifications on FedEx applications. Further, the defendants and their co-conspirators failed to honestly report accidents to FedEx.”
“As established at trial, had FedEx known about SLTG’s bribery, true size, ownership, false driver applications, and accidents, FedEx would have terminated SLTG and its subsidiaries as contracted service providers.”
63-year-old Yevgeny Felix Tuchinsky and 54-year-old Konstantin Mikhaylovich Tomilin owned and operated the trucking companies under SLTG. Tuchinsky gained $7 million in the scheme, and Tomilin gained more than $4 million in the scheme from 2009 through 2019. They will be sentenced on May 20th in Salt Lake City.