Investigations

On October 6, 2022, Alexis Castillo Padilla pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California to four counts of wire fraud stemming from a scheme to defraud interstate carriers and brokers operating in the trucking industry. Padilla was indicted in May 2019.

 

Beginning in or around 2015, Castillo began the "double-broker" scheme. After stealing the identity of an interstate carrier, Castillo agreed to make deliveries using the company's stolen identity, then posed as a shipper and re-brokered the same loads to San Diego, California-based carriers who delivered the freight. Castillo collected payments for the completed deliveries but did not pay the carriers who actually delivered the loads. Castillo orchestrated most of the scheme from Tijuana, Mexico. In March 2022, Castillo was arrested in Italy and subsequently extradited to the United States.