Trucking company owner sentenced in bribery scheme
In 2024, two owners of a Utah trucking company were found guilty of wire fraud and honest services fraud.
One of those owners, Konstantin Mikhaylovich Tomilin, has been sentenced to three years of supervised release, ordered to pay $650,000 in restitution and forfeit more than $3.8 million in cash and assets.
About the scheme
Payments of more than $300,000 to Ryan Mower, a FedEx Ground linehaul manager, landed the owners of Salt Lake Trucking Group in the Utah District Court.
Tomilin and Yevgeny Felix Tuchinsky owned and operated several trucking companies consolidated under Salt Lake Trucking Group, according to a U.S. Attorney’s office news release.
Court documents and evidence indicate that Tuchinsky, Tomilin, and their co-conspirators began making payments to FedEx employees around 2009 in exchange for more business. The payments made in exchange for more miles continued until 2019, resulting in Salt Lake Trucking Group receiving $108 million from FedEx.
Mower used his position to help the trucking company grow its business by submitting false information to FedEx Ground.
The defendants created shell companies and misled FedEx about their true ownership, the investigation revealed.
Additionally, Salt Lake Trucking Group lied about the qualifications of dozens of company drivers and failed to report crashes honestly.
“Before they delivered packages, these men and their teammates delivered cash bribes,” Stephen Dent, Assistant United States Attorney, said during the trial. “Before their trucks pulled away from the hub to go on a run, they lied and they bribed to even get that run. $108 million by cheating.”
The investigation, conducted by the FBI Salt Lake City Division, IRS Criminal Investigation, Defense Criminal Investigative Services, and the U.S. DOT Office of Inspector General, determined that Tuchinsky personally gained $7 million, while Tomilin personally received $4 million from the scheme. LL