Orlando Trucking Owner Admits $1M USPS Freight Auction Fraud
Orlando trucking owner pleads guilty in $1 million USPS freight auction fraud
An Orlando trucking and freight brokerage owner has pleaded guilty to defrauding the U.S. Postal Service of nearly $1 million by claiming payment for transportation work that his company did not perform.
Khayyam Arif Oglu Farajov, 40, owned and operated Talishco LLC in Orlando, Florida. According to federal prosecutors, he pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. Under the plea agreement, Farajov must pay $993,979 in restitution to the Postal Service and forfeit two brokerage accounts that investigators said contained proceeds from the scheme.
Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. A sentencing date had not been scheduled.
Hundreds of USPS contracts
Farajov enrolled Talishco in the Postal Service’s Freight Auction program in May 2022. The program, launched in October 2021, uses competitive bidding to secure trucking capacity for bulk-mail transportation.
From June 2022 through January 2023, Talishco won hundreds of USPS transportation contracts. Prosecutors said Farajov routinely accepted the work but did not dispatch trucks to complete the assigned routes.
When scheduled equipment failed to arrive for a pickup, USPS employees contacted Farajov. Authorities said he responded with explanations that included losing contact with drivers or drivers running late. The Postal Service then had to reassign the loads to other carriers so the mail could continue moving.
After the loads were reassigned, prosecutors said Farajov returned to the Freight Auction platform and falsely marked the shipments as delivered. Those entries triggered payment to Talishco even though the company had not hauled the contracted routes.
“Farajov then went back into the platform and exploited the system by falsely marking the loads as delivered and triggering payment from USPS even though he had not performed the contracted routes,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Investigators calculated the resulting payments at more than $1 million. Prosecutors said Farajov moved the money through accounts linked to shell companies under his control before consolidating the proceeds into two personal investment brokerage accounts. Federal investigators traced and seized those accounts.
Proof-of-delivery controls under review
The case overlapped with broader questions about how the Postal Service verified transportation work under the Freight Auction program.
USPS requires suppliers to provide proof of delivery before receiving payment. During the period covered by the case, acceptable records included tracking scans, electronic messages and manual submissions through the agency’s Logistics Gateway.
A 2024 federal audit examining fiscal years 2022 and 2023 identified 69,225 paid trips totaling approximately $197.9 million that auditors said lacked reliable proof-of-delivery support. The Postal Service disputed the full amount, saying it later located records supporting about $195 million in payments. USPS attributed the remaining $2.9 million to improper proof-of-delivery sources.
Auditors nevertheless said the agency had not adequately verified the records before making payments. USPS changed its verification procedures during the period, including eliminating manual confirmation codes and no longer accepting certain electronic messages as independent proof of delivery.
The audit did not directly connect those broader findings to Farajov or Talishco. The plea agreement, however, describes how false delivery entries were used in this specific case to obtain payment for routes that had been reassigned to other trucking companies.
Impact on carriers and drivers
For legitimate carriers, the case highlights the risks created when online delivery records are accepted without confirming that a truck actually completed the movement. A carrier that accepts a load but fails to provide equipment can force USPS or another shipper to find replacement capacity on short notice. In this case, prosecutors said the reassigned loads were completed by other trucking companies, while Talishco still received payment after entering false delivery information.
The scheme also illustrates the distinction between winning freight through a digital auction and actually performing the transportation service. A contract award does not establish that a load moved. The payment process depends on accurate records tying the electronic transaction to a completed pickup and delivery.
Federal prosecutors charged Farajov with five wire fraud counts and one money laundering count before the plea agreement reduced the case to one count of each offense. The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General investigated the matter.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Varadan prosecuted the case in the Middle District of Florida, while Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Andrejko handled the forfeiture proceedings.
Farajov’s guilty plea resolves the criminal case, but the financial terms are intended to return the disputed funds to the Postal Service. The restitution amount is slightly below the more than $1 million in payments prosecutors said were generated through the false delivery entries.
