A Mount Crawford based trucking company that formerly hauled United States mail, as well as four of its most senior officers, were all sentenced this week in United States District Court for conspiring to commit federal crimes, United States Attorney Rick A. Mountcastle announced.
Beam Bros. Trucking, Inc. (Beam Trucking) and Beam Bros. Holding Corporation were jointly sentenced by the court to pay the government $2,000,000 of fraudulently obtained proceeds. They were also sentenced to pay approximately $1,000,000 in restitution to drivers who were defrauded of their pay. In addition, these companies were sentenced to serve 3 years of corporate probation and to pay a fine of $250,000 to the government.
Beam Holding previously pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in that the company knowingly and willfully defrauded its driver employees of almost $1,000,000 dollars of their pay. Specifically Beam Holding caused their driver employees to falsify their time sheets so that they would report fewer hours worked than they actually worked in direct violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act.
According to evidence presented during the sentencing hearings, between 1999 and 2017 the leaders of the conspiracy created routes and then instructed Beam Trucking drivers to drive routes that were grossly illegal.
Beam Trucking drivers were instructed to drive routes that were so long that they barely got any sleep between trips for weeks at a time over a course of years. Drivers became so fatigued that they could hardly stay awake. On a number of occasions, Beam Bros. drivers were so fatigued that they barely avoided crashes when they momentarily fell asleep while driving trucks on public highways. One driver was so fatigued that he took bath salts drugs every few hours to stay awake. After three months of taking drugs, the driver found during one of his trips that he could no longer physically drive a truck and had to call for a medical rescue.
Beam Trucking and Beam Holding’s President and Vice President were each sentenced to serve six months of home confinement followed by three years of supervised release. Beam Trucking Chief Operations Officer and it’s Chief Financial Officer were each sentenced to serve three months of home confinement followed by three years of supervised release. Each of these officers previously pled guilty to conspiring to commit an offense in that they knowingly violated the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration highway safety regulations.
