Over-the-road Ponzi scheme? Coral Springs trucking company owner accused of $100M fraud

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. – Federal prosecutors accused a Coral Springs trucking company owner Friday of using his business as a vehicle to defraud investors to the tune of $100 million.

According to a U.S. Department of Justice news release, Sanjay Singh, 43, the owner of Royal Bengal Logistics, Inc., along with a series of unnamed co-conspirators, started scamming investors in 2020 and continued up until the time of his arrest.

A federal grand jury indicted Singh on eight criminal charges on June 14 and the indictment was ordered unsealed Thursday.

“Singh and his co-conspirators held RBL out to potential investors as a thriving and successful trucking business, all while RBL’s actual trucking business lost money,” prosecutors said. “In the process, Singh and his co-conspirators made material misrepresentations and material omissions about the riskiness of investing in RBL, the profitability of RBL’s trucking operations, how RBL would pay its investors, and how RBL would use investor funds.”

RBL was most recently headquartered at 9600 W. Sample Road and was previously located at 3700 NW 109th Ave., according to court documents.

According to the grand jury’s indictment, Singh and his co-conspirators promised extraordinary returns, exceeding 200%, to investors who bought into RBL’s “truck program,” through which RBL “contracted to use investor funds to purchase and operate trucks for investors while guaranteeing the investment principal and monthly returns.”

Prosecutors allege they also gave investors the opportunity to buy into RBL’s “trailer manufacturing program,” yielding guaranteed returns of up to 40%.

Prosecutors said Singh was able to raise more than $100 million from investors, which he then used to pay existing investors promised returns as part of a “substantial” Ponzi scheme.

The DOJ alleges that Singh “misappropriated millions of dollars of investor funds to renovate his home, make mortgage payments, pay for personal expenses, and trade stocks on margin.”

Singh could face up to 150 years in prison on charges of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and engaging in transactions in unlawful proceeds.

The FBI is asking anyone who thinks they may have been defrauded by RBL to come forward and has set up a website for victims. The agency has also set up websites in French and Haitian Creole.