A Rochester, New York-based truck company owner has been sentenced to federal prison for 45 months after being convicted of making false statements to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
Anatoliy Kirik, also known as Tony, was convicted by a jury in June in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York.
“At trial, it was shown that Kirik’s actions jeopardized the safety of the nation’s highways and roadways from unsafe tractor trailers,” the office of U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo said in a prepared statement.
Federal guidelines called for a sentence of 41 to 51 months. But the U.S. attorney’s office had requested a sentence of 57 to 71 months.
“During the nearly four-week trial, the proof amply proved that the defendant went to extensive lengths to deceive the FMCSA, in order to avoid having the ‘conditional’ safety rating assigned to one of his entities, Orange Transportation Services, Inc., carry forward to his new entity, Dallas Logistics, Inc.,” the U.S. attorney’s office said in a pre-sentencing memo. “This deceit continued for years, involved numerous trucking businesses owned by the defendant and his families, and ultimately affected the safety of the nation’s highways.”
Sought no prison time
Kirik’s attorneys had asked for home confinement or probation. In their pre-sentencing report, they cited Kirik’s “long history of integrity, hard work, acts of service to his community, positive impact on the lives of his family members, and the relationships he has built throughout his life as evidenced in his letters of good character at sentencing.”
Kirik, a father of nine, also had no prior criminal record.
He was found guilty in June on all seven counts in his April 21 indictment.
The original investigation was conducted by the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Transportation.
Lying on OP-1
The deceit that Kirik was charged with had at its center FMCSA form OP-1, which requires a long list of basic information, including the carrier’s compliance with DOT safety regulations.
It also requires the carrier submitting the OP-1 to list relations with any past or “reincarnated carriers that share common ownership, common management, common control or common familial relationship.” Federal law, as the indictment said, prohibits two or more motor carriers from having those overlapping features.
According to the indictment, the FMCSA conducted a compliance review of Dallas Logistics in April 2016. During the review, according to the indictment, a company official identified only as J.Z. – listed as James Zambito in subsequent documents – said Dallas Logistics was based in Dallas and was not affiliated in the prior three years with any other carriers regulated by FMCSA.
But FMCSA said it discovered during the review that Dallas Logistics was based in Rochester. The reason stated by the company, in a letter from an executive identified as A.B., was related to family health issues for Zambito that had slowed the relocation from Rochester to Dallas.
But that statement, according to the indictment, was “materially false and part of an orchestrated effort to conceal the fact that Anatoliy Kirk was the true owner of Dallas Logistics, and that it was an affiliate and reincarnation of Orange Transportation Services.” FMCSA had a negative safety rating on Orange Transportation.
An interview by the inspector general with Zambito revealed that he was just the “paper president” of Dallas Logistics, that the letter from A.B. about the purported health issues of his parents was false and that he was not aware of the letter when it was sent.
A follow-up interview with A.B. revealed that Kirik controlled both Dallas Logistics and Orange Transportation, and both operated out of Rochester. A.B. was told by Kirik to set up a false warehouse in Rochester to make it look like a facility of Dallas Logistics. Kirik also told A.B. to forge signatures and purge other documents, according to the indictment.
The U.S. attorney’s office, in its pre-sentencing memo, was unsparing in its criticism of Kirik. It accused him of “obstructive conduct.”
“The defendant’s repeated lies to the court show that he has no respect for the federal judicial system and this needs to be accounted for in his sentence,” it said.
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