Trucking company owner sentenced 10 years for death of employee

An owner of trucking companies in California was sentenced to 10 years in prison for ordering the illegal repair of a tanker that resulted in an explosion and the death of one of his employees.

Carl Bradley Johansson, 64, of Newport Beach, was sentenced for conspiring to make illegal repairs on cargo tanks and one count of welding without required certifications. He was also sentenced for tax evasion and fraudulently obtaining approximately $954,417 in COVID-19-relief money while free on bond in the tanker explosion case. Johansson also was ordered to pay nearly $1.3 million in restitution to two banks and the IRS.

Tanker explosions

Johansson was the owner of Corona, Calif.-based National Distribution Services and Wholesale Distribution Inc. A worker who was a welder was killed and another seriously injured after a cargo tanker exploded.

According to the criminal complaint, National was not a cargo tank shop or repair facility registered with the U.S. Department of Transportation. Johansson was the owner of National and Wholesale, where he supervised Enrique Garcia, the shop manager at both companies. Garcia ordered at least two employees he supervised to conduct welding repairs that would eventually cause the explosion.

After the May 2014 fatal explosion, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued National an emergency out-of-service order. Approximately 42 tankers were prohibited from operating.

National unsuccessfully challenged the out-of-service order. It continued to operate some of the 42 banned tankers by creating a chameleon carrier called Wholesale Distribution. The reincarnated carrier had most of the same management and employees as National.

Johansson also created shell companies to suggest that the two welders were employed by a company called TankServices LLC.

This and other shell companies also were used to avoid paying income taxes, court documents stated.

Johansson was indicted on charges related to the incident in April 2018.

In 1993, Johansson owned a company called Atlas Carrier. In a similar incident, an Atlas welder was killed while working inside a cargo tanker. Johansson and an Atlas manager were indicted on charges in June 1998. Johansson pleaded guilty to three of five counts. He was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment and two years of supervised release. Later, Johansson started a company called Systems Logistics.

In 2012, National was involved in a separate tanker explosion caused by a welder doing illegal repairs. The explosion blew the dome lid on top of the tank into ceiling, causing a hole in the roof.

PPP loan fraud

According to the indictment, Johansson applied for a PPP loan in April 2020 for his company Western Distribution, based in Ontario, Calif. He received a loan for more than $436,000 to be used to pay salaries for 21 employees. However, the employees mentioned in the loan application did not work for the company.

Johansson placed those individuals on Western Distribution payroll despite the fact they did not work there. Rather, they worked for other companies that Johansson owned and failed to mention in the loan application. Additionally, Johansson had his son falsely listed as the owner.

Funds from that PPP loan were spent in May and June 2020, mostly on expenses not related to the payroll.

According to the complaint, Johansson laid off most of the company’s employees, only to rehire many of them later that year.

Making matters worse, Johansson added his two sons on the payroll after receiving the PPP loan, making them the only employees on the payroll from April through August 2020.

Johansson filed for another PPP loan in April 2020. This time he was asking for nearly $300,000 for his Merced County-based business that is only identified as Company A in court documents. Despite Johansson and his wife having control of the company, Johansson’s 85-year-old mother was listed as the owner in the loan application.

After successfully defrauding the PPP loan system, Johansson repeated the same scheme with Western Distribution by applying for another loan for more than $230,000. That loan also was approved. He was eventually caught after fraudulently obtaining nearly $668,000 in loans. LL