A former executive at Polar Air Cargo was sentenced in federal court on Tuesday to 18 months in prison for his role in a scheme to defraud the company of $33 million dollars over more than a decade.
Robert Schirmer, who was senior director of customer service for the Americas at Polar, pleaded guilty last October to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and fraud for denial of honest services.
Polar Air Cargo is a joint venture between New York-based cargo airline Atlas Air and DHL Express. Atlas Air operates the aircraft. Most of the space is reserved for DHL, which determines the flight network. Atlas markets the rest of the capacity to freight forwarders. The airline has a fleet of eight large Boeing cargo jets, four 747-8s and four 777s, according to aircraft database Planespotters.net.
Judge Jesse Furman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York set the sentence and ordered Schirmer to report to prison on Oct. 10. He also imposed a requirement for 200 hours of community service after his release from prison. Furman recommended the Bureau of Prisons send Schirmer to a low security correctional institute in North Carolina.
As part of the plea deal, Schirmer agreed to forfeit more than $938,000 in stolen gains and repay Polar $9.3 million
Schirmer and three colleagues were charged with accepting kickbacks from a small group of customers and vendors in exchange for favorable contracts, priority cargo loading, favorable shipping rates and enrollment in incentive programs.
The Polar executives also allegedly concealed ownership positions in certain service providers and received ownership distributions based, in large part, on revenue derived from contracts with Polar — contracts that had been secured and, often, renewed largely due to the recommendations of the executives.
In May, Lars Winkelbauer, who was Polar’s chief operating officer until July 2021 and characterized in charging documents as the ringleader of the conspiracy, was sentenced to four years in federal prison. He was arrested in Thailand and extradited to the United States for trial.
Patrick Lau, who headed forwarder Cargo on Demand, was previously sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Carlton Llewellyn, a former Polar vice president in charge of operations systems performance and quality, pleaded guilty in January to one count of wire fraud. He also agreed to forfeit $348,000 and repay Polar nearly $306,000. His sentencing date has been pushed to Sept. 24.
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Write to Eric Kulisch at ekulisch@freightwaves.com
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