Former trucking company owner indicted in an alleged conspiracy to defraud the FMCSA

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Story by: Clarissa Hawes, Senior Editor, Investigations and Enterprise at FreightWaves.com

A former trucking company owner was recently indicted by a federal grand jury in New York in an alleged conspiracy to defraud the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) about the company he controlled and affiliated entities.

Tony “Anatoliy” Kirik, 39, of Rochester, New York, was charged with eight counts, including conspiracy, false statements, falsification of records, false documents, concealment of material facts and aggravated identity theft, on April 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York.

The indictment alleges that Kirik sought to hide the affiliation between Orange Transportation Services Inc. (OTS), headquartered in Rochester, and Dallas Logistics Inc. (DLI). FMCSA investigators claim DLI was a reincarnated carrier of OTS.

The indictment alleges that after OTS received a conditional safety rating from the FMCSA, Kirik established a new company, DLI, in October 2012, to avoid paying higher insurance premiums, listing its principal address as being in Texas.

Kirik allegedly submitted false and fraudulent forms for the new company, stating that DLI had not had a prior relationship with any other FMCSA-regulated entity within the past three years.

Court documents claim Kirik had an employee lie to an FMCSA official during a new entrant safety audit in March 2014, in an attempt to deceive the agency representative “into believing that Dallas Logistics was an independent trucking business in Texas and was not affiliated with Orange Transportation Services or any other FMCSA-regulated entity.”

During a compliance review in April 2016, FMCSA officials found that DLI was not headquartered in Dallas and that Kirik controlled both companies, which were based in New York.

According to the court filings, Kirik had an employee prepare and sign a letter on DLI letterhead, stating that J.Z., whose full name was not mentioned in the indictment, was listed as the president “or figurehead” of the motor carrier, which had planned to relocate to Texas. However, both of his parents became seriously ill, which caused the company to remain in New York, the letter stated.

In an interview with special agents in December 2017, J.Z., who formerly worked for OTS, claims he was approached by Kirik about creating a new motor carrier entity, DLI, and that J.Z. would be listed as the owner and president.

J.Z. claims he agreed to the arrangement because if OTS went out of business, he would be unemployed, court documents allege. However, he claims the letter about his parents’ health was produced without his knowledge.

Kirik is also listed as the contact for Main Street Logistics, also headquartered in Rochester. According to the FMCSA SAFER website, Main Street has 18 drivers and the same number of power units.

Kirik has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Voluntary discovery is set to be completed by May 21 at a pretrial conference. All pretrial motions are due by Sept. 24.

Read the original article and more HERE

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