A former New York trucking company owner was convicted by a federal jury of making false statements to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
Tony Kirik, who also goes by Anatoliy, operated Rochester-based Dallas Logistics, which had millions of dollars in revenue. He submitted false documents regarding the safety rating of his business to the FMSCA during compliance reviews and safety audits, even though the company had “many safety violations,” the IRS said in an announcement.
To dupe the FMSCA, Kirik created companies under family members’ names to make it look like the new companies were independent and not associated with the existing business that had received negative safety ratings. In reality, the new companies were extensions of the prior company, which Kirik was required to disclose but didn’t.
This week’s legal news:
OOIDA sues EPA over greenhouse gas emissions standards
PayCargo collects $16M from CargoSprint in FreightTech trademark case
Werner driver trainees lose on pay issue again in lengthy litigation
NFI CEO Brown indicted in sweeping New Jersey case against political giant
California trucking industry backs curbs on PAGA citizen-initiated labor lawsuits
A criminal complaint filed in November 2020 says FMSCA examiners discovered that Dallas Logistics was falsely registered as being operated out of Dallas and was wrongly listed as being owned by someone identified as “J.Z.” When examiners questioned the discrepancy, they received a letter signed by someone identified as “A.B.” stating that “J.Z.” was planning to relocate to Dallas when “his mother got seriously ill” and his father “developed health ailments.”
Examiners learned that Dallas Logistics was actually owned by Kirik and was a “reincarnation” of Orange Transportation Services, which was owned by Kirik and received a negative safety rating, the complaint says.
Kirik is scheduled to be sentenced in October in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
