Federal law enforcement officials recently announced the arrest of trucking company owner Arsen Lusher, who is said to have orchestrated a scheme to defraud more than 20 investors of more than $5 million between 2017 and 2021.
Lusher, 49, of Millstone, New Jersey, is charged with one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory consecutive sentence of two years in prison.
FBI Assistant Director James E. Dennehy said: “For four years, Arsen Lusher allegedly defrauded numerous victims of more than $5 million by cycling their investments to conceal the business’s inability to produce its promised returns, and altered official tax documents to reflect inflated balances in furtherance of this ploy. The alleged empty assurances allowed the defendant to wrongfully haul in funding from investors and selfishly benefit from their losses.”
According to the allegations in the complaint unsealed earlier this week in Manhattan federal court Lusher and a small group of trusted lieutenants solicited investments from the victims, usually by representing that Lusher had a profitable trucking business that enjoyed delivery and installation contracts with multiple large retailers.
Lusher and his lieutenants typically represented that the victims’ investments would fund the purchase of trucks, each truck costing around $45,000, according to a statement from the federal officials. Through written and signed investment agreements, Lusher and his lieutenants normally guaranteed the victims that their investments would generate high rates of return over a fixed period — typically between 30 and 40 percent over one or two years. In that way, Lusher succeeded in raising more than $40 million.
In fact, though, Lusher did not have a large trucking business. Instead, officials say Lusher had a small trucking business that performed a small amount of work — less than $300,000 — for just one large retailer. The amount that Lusher earned from his legitimate trucking business could not have compensated the victims and produced the promised returns, according to the statement form federal law enforcement officers.
Lusher is said to have not used the victims’ funds to purchase trucks or to grow his trucking business. Instead, for years, Lusher engaged in a so called Ponzi scheme:, paying earlier victims with later victims’ funds. He is also used the victims’ funds to enrich himself, such as by gambling or shopping for high-end goods. In early 2021, the scheme collapsed, leaving numerous victims with losses totaling more than $5 million, according to the feds’ statement.
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