Khayyam Arif Oglu Farajov, 40, an Azerbaijani national, has pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering in connection with a scheme to fraudulently obtain payments from the United States Postal Service.
Farajov faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison on each count. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe made the announcement.
According to the plea agreement, Farajov owned and operated Talishco LLC, a trucking and freight brokerage company in Orlando. In May 2022, Farajov enrolled Talishco in the U.S. Postal Service's “Freight Auction” program to transport bulk mail. Between June 2022 and January 2023, Farajov bid on and was awarded hundreds of contracts to transport mail across the country on behalf of the postal service.
After being awarded the contracts, Farajov routinely and intentionally did not send trucks to do the work. When USPS staff asked where the trucks were, the U.S. Attorney said Farajov made false excuses, such as claiming he had lost contact with his drivers or that they were running behind schedule, which forced the USPS to reassign the work to other carriers.
Farajov then went back into the platform and exploited the system by falsely marking the loads as delivered and triggering payment from USPS even though he had not performed the contracted routes, according to the U.S. Attorney.
Farajov obtained more than $1 million from this scheme. After he received the funds, he funneled them through a series of bank accounts belonging to shell companies he owned.
After reconsolidating the fraud proceeds into two personal investment brokerage accounts, Farajov invested the fraud proceeds in the stock market for his personal enrichment. The United States traced the fraud proceeds and seized the contents of Farajov’s brokerage accounts.
Farajov has agreed to forfeit the seized brokerage accounts and pay an additional $993,979 in restitution to the USPS., according to the U.S. Attorney.
