Hundreds of trucking companies had been allegedly defrauded in an elaborate scheme utilizing a controversial practice called double brokering. After months of investigating, reporter Clarissa Hawes got a tip that led to a series of bizarre phone calls with the man who owned a freight brokerage at the center of the operation.
“You’ve got a lot of angry people … trying to find out who is trying to find them, who is trying to hurt their kids, their families,” he told Hawes.
The latest episode of Long-Haul Crime Log wades into Hawes’ investigation into a network of companies in Southern California connected to the scheme and her efforts to find the people responsible for it.
It led her to a transportation executive named Steve Avetyan, who once boasted of handing out Rolex watches — he called them “Rollies” — as bonuses for his best sales staff.
Avetyan claimed to be someone else when Hawes first called him. He eventually admitted to being Avetyan, but denied any involvement in the double-brokering network.
More from the investigation
Former employees shed light on sophisticated double-brokering network
Freight fraud: Burgeoning double-brokering scheme like ‘whack-a-mole’
CEO denies ties to sophisticated double-brokering scheme in Southern California
About the podcast
Long-Haul Crime Log is a podcast about crime in the trucking industry. Reach out at crime@freightwaves.com or find us on Twitter @LongHaulCrime.
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