Trucking news and briefs for Wednesday, July 1, 2020:
Former Rhode Island-based fleet owner charged with fraud against Amazon
The owner of a for-hire carrier in Rhode Island has been charged with wire fraud and mail fraud following an alleged ongoing fraud scheme.
Michael Chaves, former owner of CAT Inc., had been on pretrial supervision as a result of charges stemming from a scheme to defraud the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, according to the DOT Office of Inspector General. His release was based on the condition that he not commit another local, state or federal crime. He was charged on July 24, 2019, and pled guilty to charges on Aug. 22.
On approximately March 31, 2020, while he was on pretrial release, OIG says Amazon.com contacted investigators with information regarding an alleged ongoing fraud being perpetrated by Chaves.
Amazon alleged that since March 2017, Chaves held approximately 30 Amazon customer accounts under various names and email addresses. During that time, the accounts placed approximately 10,795 orders totaling more than $700,000, most of which were refunded based on Chaves’ alleged return of the purchased items.
OIG says Chaves received approximately $643,324.04 in concessions or refunds on approximately 7,450 orders. In an attempt to deceive Amazon’s incoming inspection process, many of the returned items were in the original packaging.
The majority of Chaves’ purchases and returns consisted of motor vehicle and commercial motor vehicle parts. Chaves allegedly often replaced the originally ordered product with a substitute that at first glance appeared visually similar to the original, but instead was sometimes a used or inferior version.
