Two individuals face fraud charges against freight factoring, broker companies

Two Kentucky individuals have been indicted in a federal court for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and disaster fraud.

In January, Yeniseis Saavedra and Alien Saavedra were indicted in a Kentucky federal court. The indictment alleges that Yeniseis and Alien Saavedra conspired to defraud freight factoring companies and freight brokers by submitting false bills of lading and other documentation, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General.

The fraud scheme

According to the indictment, Alien Saavedra created AYS Logistics and Yeniseis Saavedra created IFT, LLC in Louisville, Ky., in 2019. Yeniseis Saavedra was employed by trucking company HTSI.

Allegedly, Yeniseis and Alien created a fraudulent co-brokerage agreement between AYS and HTSI in November 2019. Am HTSI employee’s signature was forged. Yeniseis sent the co-brokerage agreement and forged bill of ladings to a freight factoring company located in Scottsdale, Ariz., to induce payment to AYS. AYS entered into factoring service agreements with the factoring company agreeing to assign all accounts receivables and proceeds to the company.

Around the same time, Yeniseis sent fraudulent invoices and bill of ladings to another freight factoring company located in Olathe, Kan., the indictment claims. Similar with AYS, IFT entered into factoring service agreements with the factoring company agreeing to assign all accounts receivables and proceeds to the company.

In March 2020, the Olathe-based factoring company began withholding payments to IFT since IFT had negative funds in its reserve account. This was a result of the factoring company not having received payment from the fraudulent invoices.

Consequently, Yeniseis created and sent a fraudulent release letter to a freight broker with offices in Seattle and Atlanta. The release letter was purported to be from the factoring company in Olathe directing all payments for invoices related to IFT. This scheme was repeated with another broker company, according to the indictment.

As part of the scheme, Yeniseis made fraudulent statements to the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Specifically, Yeniseis paid FMCSA for an MCSA-1 filing on behalf of C.I. Transportation. The filing requires the applicant to swear under oath whether the applicant has within the last three years a relationship with any other FMCSA-regulated entity. Yeniseis had previously filed an MSCA-1 on behalf of IFT.

Furthermore, the indictment claims that Yeniseis and Alien fraudulently applied for and received lost wage assistance payments during the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2020.

The two individuals face several charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, false statements, disaster fraud and aggravated identity theft. LL