An Ohio trucking company owner faces multiple counts of stealing from an interstate shipment, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General.
In May, Gurtej Singh was indicted in a Southern District of Ohio federal court on one count of conspiracy to steal from interstate shipments, two counts of stealing from an interstate shipment, and one count of making a false statement.
According to court documents, Singh owned Bhullar Transport Group and was a manager at Cargo Solution Express. Singh conducted operations of the two companies at a warehouse in Columbus, Ohio.
As part of the conspiracy, Singh and others directed Cargo Solution Express drivers to stop at the Columbus warehouse, the indictment states. At the warehouse, Cargo Solution Express employees opened the trailers. However, many of the trailers had seals placed on the lock to prevent theft.
To circumvent these seals, Cargo Solution Express employees would remove the entire trailer locking mechanism.
At times, this would require cutting and replacing bolts. The mechanism would be replaced to give the appearance that the cargo was never tampered with, investigators said.
Singh directed others to remove the cargo either to be consolidated onto other truckloads ore stored at the Columbus warehouse. The cargo then would be taken for personal use, for the use of Cargo Solution Express, or to sell, according to the indictment. Some of the items were sold at pawn shops.
Stolen items include more than 150 Shark Ion Robot RV750 vacuum cleaners and dozens of Samsung 32-inch curved computer monitors. One text message on an employee’s phone shows two of those computer monitors in use at the Columbus warehouse. Around 10 of the vacuums were sold to a local pawn shop for $850. About nine computer monitors were sold to the pawn shop for $840.
According to the indictment, Singh allegedly stole vacuums valued at about $41,000 that were destined to ship to Amazon. Singh also allegedly stole Bath and Body Works products valued at nearly $32,000. LL
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