Dyersburg Residents Found Guilty by Federal Jury

   Memphis, TN - A federal jury found Freddie Ford, 55, formerly of Dyersburg,  guilty of thirty-seven counts of conspiracy, mail and wire fraud and money laundering, and defendant David Hernandez, 45, formerly of Dyersburg, guilty of twenty-two counts of conspiracy and mail and wire fraud according to David Kustoff United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee.

Ford and Hernandez were indicted in 2004.  The indictment charged that Ford, who was the owner of Airtrans, Inc., a trucking company located in Dyersburg, Tennessee, and that Hernandez, Airtrans’ general manager, engaged in a conspiracy to defraud Allied Carriers Exchange.  According to the indictment, Allied was a cooperative that purchased Airtrans’ receivables; in this case, loads of freight that Airtrans supposedly hauled but in reality had not.  The indictment further states that the members of the conspiracy caused false documents to be submitted to Allied as part of the scheme.  The indictment also related that from January 24, 2001 to May 29, 2001, members of the conspiracy created false documents that were submitted to Allied in order to obtain the funds from Allied, and that Allied would wire transfer funds to Airtrans as a result of the submission of the fraudulent documents.

Both Ford and Hernandez were charged in Count One of the indictment with conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud in violation of Title 18, United States Code, section 371.  This violation is punishable by a term of imprisonment of up to five years and a fine of up to $250,000. 

Counts Two through 19 of the indictment charged Ford and Hernandez with aiding and abetting each other in a series of violations of the federal wire fraud statute involving interstate wire transfers of funds .  The two statutes violated in these instances were Title 18, United States Code, section 2, the aiding and abetting statute, and Title 18, United States Code, section 1343, the federal wire fraud statute.  The wire fraud statute makes it a crime to use certain interstate communications facilities to execute a fraud scheme.  A violation of the federal wire fraud statute is punishable by a term of imprisonment of up to twenty years and a fine of up to $250,000.  

In Counts 20 through 22 of the indictment Ford and Hernandez were charged with aiding and abetting each other in a series of mail fraud violations.  Title 18, United States Code, section 1341, the federal mail fraud statute, makes it a crime to use the mails or an interstate commercial or private carrier to execute a scheme to defraud.  A violation of the mail fraud statute is punishable by a term of imprisonment of up to twenty years and a fine of up to $250,000.

Ford was charged in Counts 23 through 37 of the indictment with money laundering in violation of Title 18, United States Code, section 1957(a).  This statute makes it a crime to engage in a monetary transaction through a financial institution which involves criminally derived property greater than $10,000.  A violation of this statute is punishable by a term of imprisonment of up to ten years and a fine of up to $250,000.  The indictment related that the transactions involved in the money laundering counts included wire transfers and checks.  According to the indictment, the amounts involved in these transactions ranged from a low of $12,617.95 to a high of $51,346.05, and eight of the charged transactions involved amounts in excess of $40,000.                                                                
The jury found Ford guilty as to all 37 counts of the indictment.  Sentencing for Ford is currently set for July 11, 2008, before United States District Judge Samuel H. Mays, Jr.  The jury found Hernandez guilty as to all twenty-two counts for which he was charged.  He is also set to be sentenced before Judge Mays on July 11, 2008.

In addition to sentencing in the fraud case, Ford is also scheduled to be sentenced in a second case in May of this year.  In November of 2007 Ford was found guilty of theft of funds from an employee benefit plan in violation of Title 18, United States Code, section 664.  A violation of this statute, which prohibits the theft, embezzlement or conversation of the property of an employee benefit plan, is punishable a term of imprisonment of up to five years and a fine of up to $250,000.  The indictment charged that Ford had embezzled, abstracted and converted approximately $10,771 of the funds of the Airtrans RSI 401K Retirement Plan between February and May of 2002.  Sentencing in that case is currently set for May 6, 2008, before Judge Mays.

The fraud case was investigated by United States Postal Inspectors Thomas Terry and Andrew Hathcock, and Special Agents Patrick Strawn and Jason Cardone of the Federal Bureau of investigation.  John Lewoczko, formerly a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, also participated in the investigation.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Murphy.