ALBANY, NEW YORK – Juller Perez, age 43, of Garfield, New Jersey, was arraigned today on an indictment charging him with engaging in a kickback scheme to defraud a company with operations in Greene County, from at least 2015 to 2019. The announcement was made by United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman; Janeen DiGuiseppi, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); and Tammy L. Tomlins, Special Agent in Charge of the Newark Field Office of Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI).
According to the indictment, from at least 2015 to 2019, Perez co-owned a trucking company in New Jersey that transported products as a third-party contractor for a bedding company with a distribution facility in West Coxsackie, New York. As part of the fraudulent scheme, Perez paid kickbacks to the transportation manager of the bedding company in exchange for the use of the bedding company’s trucks and drivers to transport merchandise from West Coxsackie to Perez’s truck yard in Clifton, New Jersey, which allowed Perez to avoid certain transportation costs. Perez then fraudulently invoiced and received payment from the bedding company as if his trucking company had transported and delivered the merchandise from West Coxsackie when Perez and his trucking company transported the merchandise only from the Clifton, New Jersey location.
The charges in the indictment are merely accusations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
The charges filed against Perez carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to 3 years. A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, and other factors.
Perez was arraigned today in Albany before United States Magistrate Judge Daniel J. Stewart, and was released pending a trial before United States District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino.
This case is being investigated by the FBI and IRS-CI, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander P. Wentworth-Ping.