A Connecticut man is facing more than a dozen charges connected to a years-long trucking scheme to defraud Amazon of over $3 million.

On May 7, Ameer Nasir, 24, was indicted by a federal grand jury on 13 counts of wire fraud, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut.

Nasir was arrested on May 8 and has since been released on a $300,000 bond.

Officials describe the scheme:

As alleged in the indictment, Amazon Logistics, an Amazon subsidiary, contracts with various interstate trucking businesses to transport both empty trailers and trailers containing heavy loads of freight between cities and between warehouses and fulfillment centers operated by Amazon.  Nasir registered 23 trucking businesses with Amazon Logistics.  One of the accounts was created in the name of Nasir’s business, Pak Express Transport, LLC, and others were created fraudulently using the names and identifying information of other trucking or transportation companies without the knowledge of the operators of those companies. 

Between approximately December 2019 and February 2021, Nasir used these accounts to sign up for more than 1,000 transportation assignments with Amazon Logistics, manipulated information in Amazon Logistics’ transportation management system to misrepresent that he had completed trailer movements when he had not, and submitted fraudulent invoices to Amazon Logistics that were subsequently paid.  Through this scheme, Nasir defrauded Amazon of more than $3 million.

Each count of wire fraud carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The case is under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with assistance from Amazon.