Broker charged in $1 million USPS Freight Auction fraud scheme

A freight broker could face decades in prison after he was indicted on multiple fraud and money laundering charges related to a scheme involving the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) Freight Auction program.

On March 15, authorities announced that Khayyam Arif Oglu Farajov, 40, was indicted on five counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.

Farajov owned and operated freight brokerage company Talishco LLC, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.

Between June 2022 and January 2023, Farajov allegedly took part in a scheme that netted more than $1 million involving the USPS Freight Auction program.

From the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

“In May 2022, Farajov enrolled in the USPS’s Freight Auction program. Through Freight Auction, Farajov bid on and was awarded hundreds of contracts to transport U.S. Mail across the country on behalf of the USPS. For the majority of these contracts, Farajov failed to transport the mail or hire anyone else to do so, making false excuses to the USPS about why his trucks had not arrived on schedule. Despite failing to deliver the loads, Farajov would then log back into Freight Auction, manually enter bogus delivery information, and get paid.“

Authorities say that the fraudulently obtained money would then be placed in bank accounts belonging to shell companies owned by Farajov, after which they would be consolidated into two personal investment brokerage accounts. From there, Farajov is said to have invested the fraudulently obtained funds into the stock market for his personal gain.

If convicted, Farajov faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison for each count.

Additionally, the U.S. government has seized the two personal investment accounts.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office described Fajajov as an “Azerbaijani National.”

This case was investigated by the USPS Office of Inspector General.