Trucking news and briefs for Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020:
Florida-based HHG mover pleads guilty to racketeering
Vladimir Pestereanu, a foreman for a moving company enterprise based in Florida, pleaded guilty Jan. 24 to one count of participating in a racketeering conspiracy related to a moving company enterprise. The enterprise allegedly controlled several moving companies and defrauded, extorted and stole from customers seeking to move household goods, according to DOT OIG.
OIG says the companies would offer low estimates and promised to beat competitors’ prices. Then after loading goods onto a truck, employees would increase the price of the move, holding the goods hostage until the customer paid the inflated prices. They also allegedly charged customers for moving more cubic feet of goods than they actually loaded, and did not deliver some goods at all.
OIG adds that when customers would complain, the enterprise would shut down the latest iteration of the company and open a new one, falsifying information about owners’ identities to receive operating licenses from FMCSA.
Trucker named Highway Angel for helping at accident scene
The Truckload Carriers Association has named Network Transport driver Stafford Albertson a Highway Angel for helping at the scene of a serious accident involving a van and two trucks.
Albertson was about 70 miles outside of Shreveport, Louisiana, when he heard a report on the CB that there was a bad wreck ahead with a van and two trucks. As he approached the accident, he could see a woman standing off to the side in the grass and one of the trucks, a box truck with a sleeper, was on its side.
“The cab was mangled,” Albertson said. “The door had been torn off and the driver had been ejected. Someone was already helping him. Then someone said there was another man in the cab, in the sleeper. I could hear him in there moaning.”
