Trucking news and briefs for Wednesday, March 15, 2023:
On Feb. 24, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California sentenced Alexis Castillo-Padilla of Tijuana, Mexico, to 30 months in prison, three years of supervised release, $239,904 in restitution, and a $400 special assessment.
On Oct. 6, 2022, Castillo pleaded guilty to four counts of wire fraud related to a double-broker scheme.
According to the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General, an investigation revealed that from around 2015 until October 2017, Castillo led a double-broker scheme in which he stole the identity of an interstate carrier and agreed to make deliveries using the company's stolen identity.
Rather than delivering the loads, Castillo posed as a shipper and re-brokered the same loads to other carriers who delivered the freight. Castillo collected the payments for the completed deliveries but did not pay the carriers who actually delivered the loads.
[Related: Don't be a victim: How to guard both personal and business identity to prevent theft]
A California state appeals court on Monday upheld a ballot measure allowing apps like Uber and Lyft to treat their drivers as independent contractors, rather than employees.
