The recent closure of a few big brokerages has left carriers unpaid collectively tens of millions of dollars.
The entire R&R family of companies -- including R&R Express Logistics, RFX LLC, GT Worldwide Logistics, Paradigm Transportation MGMT, Pioneer Transfer, AM Transportation Services, R&R Global and Taylor Express -- shuttered in January, taking down with it AGX Freight.
Separately, Helix Logistics, a brokerage set up to handle freight from metals company Cleveland Cliffs, also recently collapsed.
Alleged fraud at R&R Family of companies
A recent lawsuit from R&R's lender, The Huntington National Bank, said R&R had “accrued approximately $65 million in trade payables” at the time of its collapse, though that figure would include debts besides money owed to carriers.
That lawsuit, filed on Jan. 23 in the Circuit Court for the Twentieth Judicial Circuit in Collier County, Florida, alleged R&R had taken out loans in 2022, then fallen into financial distress and continued to operate and book loads despite facing insolvency.
The suit alleges the companies granted “a lien and security interest in substantially all of their assets as collateral for the Operating Loans,” which would include money owed to carriers.
“R&R and the additional Borrowers' financial condition steadily declined” from 2022 to 2025, the lawsuit states. “Throughout 2025, this decline accelerated rapidly.”
R&R and other borrowers “reported significant monthly operating losses” in 2025 that indicated they “were burning through cash at an alarming rate,” according to the complaint. “The collective net operating losses of R&R and the other Borrowers in 2025 eventually totaled a staggering $25.9 million,” and the bank suspected it was actually much worse and that R&R and companies were hiding the losses through “erroneous accounting.”
By late 2025, Huntington, the lender, was telling R&R to “wind down their affairs in an orderly manner.”
R&R kept booking loads, Huntingdon alleges in its civil complaint, arguing that Richard Francis, owner of R&R, tried to transfer the company’s equity in a “corporate retreat” property in Marco Island, Florida, worth about $5 million, to himself and his wife.
“In the midst of this financial crisis, and while negotiations among Plaintiff, R&R and the other Borrowers were ongoing, on December 29, 2025, R. Francis (the principal of R&R and the other Borrowers) executed a fraudulent scheme designed to transfer the equity in the Property away from R&R to R. Francis and his wife,” the complaint alleges.
Huntington said R&R owed about $40 million, and after the transfer of the property tried to wire $5 million to the bank, but it’s still pursuing two civil counts of “avoidance of transfer” in court.
Over at AGX Freight, another broker named as a borrower in Huntington’s lawsuit, CEO Mike Williams told Overdrive that the bank, not carriers, are claiming shipper payments as they come in.
Transport Topics ranked R&R as the 29th biggest brokerage in 2025, bringing in about $850 million in gross revenue that year.
[Related: Double brokering and freight fraud: Just how bad is it out there?]
Helix Logistics leaves workers, carriers in the lurch
Brian Woodring, an owner-operator based in Indiana, had no luck getting payment out of Helix Logistics, a broker that recently shuttered, leaving even its own staff unpaid, according to a former employee.
Woodring has taken to going after the shipper whose load he was moving, Cleveland Cliffs, for payment. Woodring, like many carriers stiffed by a shuttered brokerage, had factored a load run for Helix before getting hit with a chargeback fee by the factoring company when Helix didn’t pay.
He’s pursuing Cleveland Cliffs now for payment for the freight movement, plus the fee from his factoring company, but so far hasn’t heard anything back.
[Related: What are your right, recourse options when a broker doesn't pay?]
Helix Logistics was the brokerage in November that threatened to sue a carrier over what the carrier called “nonsensical” claims of back solicitation. Helix claimed, essentially, that carriers they’d used couldn’t haul for Cleveland Cliffs anymore, even if they were tendered a load directly from the shipper.
The carrier who was threatened with a lawsuit pushed back, and an executive at Helix eventually admitted the threat was a ploy to get back at Cleveland Cliffs after the shipper had torn up a contract the brokerage depended on.
Overdrive withheld Helix's name from reporting at that time, as the executive at Helix was very apologetic and the carrier didn't wish to shame them.
Even mega brokers that remain in business like ITS Logistics, now part of Echo Global, have recently tried novel “offsetting” arguments to skimp carriers out of payment, in one case around $40,000.
None of the carriers jilted by shuttered carriers expect much money, and the ones that filed against the surety bonds of big brokers like R&R, especially, now expect pennies on the dollar.
Owner-operators, have you experienced "offsetting" claims from brokers? Double brokering scams? Respond to Overdrive's brief survey below:
