Freight Forwarding Fraud Shut Down

A couple in Biloxi, Mississippi have pled guilty to their roles in a freight forwarding scheme that stole money from customers, carriers, and drivers. According to court documents, the scheme was in operation from March through July of 2009.

Dustin Griswold and his wife, Jennifer Griswold, ran a fake trucking company named Harmoni Shipping. They would find businesses on the internet that needed shipping services and would contract with them to transport their goods. They would then hire another trucking company to pick up and deliver the load. Once they received payment, they would keep the money and not pay the third party carrier a cent.

Jennifer Griswold pled guilty to withholding information on a crime and faces up the three years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Dustin Griswold pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

When the Griswold’s were confronted over non-payment, they came up with several excuses that were certainly original even if they weren’t very believable. According to court documents, when Jennifer was asked by UPS Freight why they hadn’t received payment yet, she first responded that she had wired the money already. When they called her back, she claimed that the check was in the mail. When that didn’t work either, she told a UPS employee that “their house had been broken into, all of their checks stolen, and their bank account had been frozen.”

Dustin Griswold meanwhile told UPS that he could not pay them until he received a check from the client and that someone had erased all of the files on his computer and stolen his checkbook. Later he sent an email to AWM transportation claiming that their freight was “being held for ransom on the side of the road and would not be delivered until Harmoni Shipping received payment” so that they could pay the ransom.

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Source: landline

By Samuel Barradas.