Charges: Utah FedEx Ground employee accepted bribes in $280-million fraud scheme
how does something like this happen on this scale to the point where it gets up to hundreds of millions of dollars?
(KUTV) — Federal indictments unsealed Monday allege a handful of Utah trucking companies engaged in a scheme to secure nearly $300 million in FedEx contracts over the past 10 years.
According to the indictments, Ryan Lee Mower, 47, of Bountiful, was "the highest-ranking FedEx Ground employee in Utah from at least 2008 to Oct. 2019." Mower is alleged to have accepted bribes from operators of Salt Lake Trucking Group and other companies who contracted with FedEx Ground in Utah.
“Ryan Mower allegedly received more than $1 million in illegal income, which he did not claim on his tax returns, by taking bribes to provide an unfair advantage to other trucking companies," Tara Sullivan, special agent in charge for IRS-Criminal Investigation, states in a press release.
U.S. officials state Mower and his alleged co-conspirators fraudulently obtained contracts for FedEx shipments, allowed unauthorized runs, boosted miles and accept payments for "ghost runs," falsely reported accidents and falsely reported miles to make more money out of their business dealings.
“The ghost routes would be routes that they pretended to run a truck on, but they didn’t really run a truck. They got paid to do nothing," Assistant U.S. Attorney Tyler Murray told 2News.
In total, the four indictments allege Mower accepted more than $1 million in bribes for fraudulent practices that allowed the other nine co-defendants to make at least $280.3 million in revenue from FedEx Ground.
The first names five defendants were involved in some way with Salt Lake Trucking Group, and are alleged to have received approximately $150 million in revenue from FedEx Ground and paid Mower at least $300,000 in bribes. They include:
They're charged with 16 counts of wire fraud conspiracy, promotional money laundering, and money laundering.
- Yevgeny Felix Tuchinsky, age 59, who resides in Salt Lake City and San Diego
- Alexsander Vasiliyevich Barsukov, age 52, of Salt Lake City
- Konstantin Mikhaylovich Tomilin, age 50, who has homes in Salt Lake City and Pennsylvania
- Leonid Isaakovich Teyf, age 58, of Raleigh, North Carolina
- Felix Tsipelzon, age 48, of South Jordan
A second indictment alleges Mower received at least $490,000 in bribes from Hubert Ivan Ugarte, age, 52, of Draper, who owned and operated several trucking companies that contracted with FedEx Ground. Ugarte's companies netted approximately $90 million in profit from the company over the past eight years through fraudulent means, U.S. investigators state.
"In addition to the criminal charges, the United States obtained seizure warrants to deprive the defendants of the profits of their alleged criminal conduct by seizing 25 pieces of real property, 60 bank accounts, investments, cars, boats, snowmobiles, motorcycles, ATVs, trailers, jewelry and firearms," the press release states.
Mower was additionally charged with filing false tax returns to conceal or misrepresent his total income "for several tax years."
“This case shows what can happen when someone doesn’t compete fairly, when they cheat, when they don’t play by the rules," Murray said.
how does something like this happen on this scale to the point where it gets up to hundreds of millions of dollars?
