FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	CONTACT: Lauren Horwood
March 28, 2012	PHONE: (916) 554-2706
www.usdoj.gov/usao/cae	usacae.edcapress@usdoj.gov
Docket #: 2:06-cr-312; 08-cr-107-LKK

            SACRAMENTO, Calif. — United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that Kulwant Singh Gill, 53, of Antelope, was sentenced Tuesday by United States District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton to 10 years and 10 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release for a scheme to defraud trucking companies out of payment for interstate freight deliveries. Judge Karlton ordered Gill to pay $443,388 in restitution to the victims.

            Gill pleaded guilty on September 22, 2009 to charges involving the scheme in two separate indictments. According to court documents, Gill owned and operated companies authorized by the Department of Transportation to transport freight loads and to broker the interstate transportation of freight. He would use Internet-based “load-posting” boards to find freight loads that were available for transport and would offer to transport those loads for a fixed price. Then, he would re-post those loads on the same or different websites, acting as a broker seeking another trucking company willing to transport the freight. In over 100 instances, Gill found trucking companies to deliver the freight, allowed them to make the deliveries, and then received payment from the original brokers who believed Gill had completed the deliveries himself. Gill then refused to pay the trucking companies that actually transported the freight, keeping the money for himself. Gill was indicted in 2006, but continued the scheme while on pretrial release, which led to the 2008 indictment. In total, Gill was convicted on eight counts of wire fraud and five counts of making false statements to a government agency.

            This case is the product of an investigation by the United States Department of Transportation, Office of Inspector General. Assistant United States Attorney Michele Beckwith prosecuted the case.

####

 

Return to Top