Trucking Company Owner Starts 5 Illegal Trucking Businesses with PPP Loan Proceeds – Fraud Friday
September 6, 2024
Delaney Sexton
Contributing Editor
Trucking Company Owner Starts 5 Illegal Trucking Businesses with PPP Loan Proceeds – Fraud Friday
“Billingslea falsified documents in order to receive PPP funds to operate illegal and unsafe businesses that he was ordered to stop operating,” says U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan. “He has now been held accountable for his crimes. But our office’s work continues in collaborating with our law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute those who defraud the United States Government, including by stealing funds from PPP and other important programs.”
Roderick Billingslea, a former trucking company owner, landed himself in prison after operating illegal trucking businesses and applying for a fraudulent PPP loan. At one point, Billingslea did operate a legitimate trucking business, but the Department of Transportation (DOT) ordered the business to put a stop to its operations because of multiple safety violations. The Department of Transportation also prohibited him from creating successor trucking entities, but Billingslea found a way.
After being ordered not to do so, Billingslea filed registrations for at least five trucking entities over the course of two years. He was able to control and operate the illegal business by stealing the corporate identities of legitimate trucking businesses.
How he managed to fund the illegal businesses was through a PPP loan he received in 2020. Billingslea applied for and received a PPP loan of more than $564,000 on behalf of Billingslea, Inc. He inflated numbers by claiming his company had 25 employees and monthly payroll expenses of over $200,000. Also, he lied saying that he was not barred from operating a trucking business. His PPP loan was approved and later forgiven.
The illegal trucking businesses were operated by employing truck drivers that had no knowledge that they were working for an illegitimate business. Billingslea had the employees drive until they received DOT violations. Once violations were incurred, he would move on to the next company with a new set of drivers.
Even after his arrest, his problematic behavior did not come to an end. Only two days after being arrested, he attempted to deposit $1.5 million into his personal bank account and tried to withdraw the amount in cash. The bank found the transfer suspicious and froze his funds, preventing the withdrawal. He was also ordered to cease the operation of his trucking businesses after being arraigned, but prosecutors claim that he continued to operate the illegal businesses anyway.
For his crimes, he was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison and was set to report to prison on August 20th. However, he filed a motion the day before to push back the start of his sentence to September 16th. The judge only gave him an extra two days, and he has since reported to prison. In addition to prison time, Billingslea was ordered to pay $600,000 in restitution and for the cost of his incarceration (around $50,000 a year).
Sources:
U.S. Attorney’s Office Press Release
Freight Waves Article