A Georgia man who created eight trucking companies, most of which were chameleon carriers, has been sentenced for fraudulently obtaining hundreds of thousands of dollars in COVID-19 relief funds.
On Tuesday, Aug. 13, a federal district court in Georgia sentenced Roderick Billingslea of Acworth, Ga., to 30 months in prison and ordered him to pay nearly $600,000 in restitution. Billingslea pleaded guilty to two counts related to a fraud scheme involving multiple trucking companies and Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds.
In 2018 and 2019, Billingslea registered three trucking companies with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in Florida and Georgia: Billingslea Inc., Freight Angels LLC and Wild Bill’s Heavy Haul. Just a few months after the last company was registered, all three were forced to shut down.
In January 2020, FMCSA ordered Billingslea Inc. to shut down after an agency review found serious violations of hazardous material regulations. To prevent owners of a shuttered company from moving to another company, an FMCSA shutdown order affects all trucking companies owned by that person. Consequently, Freight Angels and Bill’s Heavy Haul also had to cease operations.
Despite the companies’ demise, Billingslea filed a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan application for Billingslea Inc. in June 2020. Based on fraudulent information provided in the application, the company was granted a nearly $600,000 loan, all of which was forgiven.
In addition to fraudulently obtaining CARES Act funds, Billingslea illegally created several trucking companies after his first three were ordered to shut down. From June 2020 through October 2022, Billingslea, or someone acting on his behalf, registered five companies with a principal place of business scattered throughout the United States:
In February, Billingslea was indicted on two counts of wire fraud related to the PPP loan scheme and five counts of falsification of records, one count for each of the five trucking companies registered after January 2020. He pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of falsifying records.
In addition to the prison sentence and restitution, Billingslea was sentenced to three years of supervised release and must pay for the cost of incarceration at nearly $50,000 annually.
“Today’s sentence should send a clear message that, along with our law enforcement and prosecutorial partners, we will tirelessly pursue individuals who compromise trucking safety by intentionally ignoring or circumventing federal orders and regulations,” Joseph Harris, special agent in charge of the southern region of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General, said in a statement. LL
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