Orlando trucking owner billed USPS for freight routes never hauled — guilty plea

USPS launched its Freight Auction in October 2021, a competitive spot-market program that buys trucking capacity for bulk mail by auction; a 2024 federal audit counted 102 transportation providers in fiscal years 2022 and 2023. Khayyam Arif Oglu Farajov registered his Orlando company Talishco LLC with the system in May 2022, and over June 2022 to January 2023 won hundreds of transportation contracts. On a number of routes his company won, he never sent trucks.

When USPS employees called about missed pickups, prosecutors said, Farajov claimed his drivers had been delayed and he was out of touch. Postal officials diverted the shipments to other carriers so the mail still moved. Farajov then logged back into the Freight Auction platform and marked the shipments as delivered. The false entries triggered payments to Talishco for transportation never performed — prosecutors put the proceeds at more than $1 million. He routed the money through shell-company accounts into two personal brokerage accounts and invested it in stocks.

A federal grand jury indicted Farajov on five counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering on March 16, 2026. Roughly seven months later he pled guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. Under the plea he must surrender the two seized brokerage accounts and pay an additional $993,979 in restitution; sentencing has not been scheduled, and each count carries up to 20 years in federal prison.

Pled guilty to wire fraud and money laundering: forfeiture of two brokerage accounts, $993,979 restitution, up to 20 years per count.

Talishco won hundreds of Freight Auction contracts and did not send trucks on many of them, while USPS employees chasing missed pickups got stories about delayed drivers.

The platform authorized payment against supplier-submitted proof of delivery, so marking undelivered routes as delivered directly triggered the money.

Proceeds moved through shell-company accounts into two personal brokerage accounts and the stock market, converting program payments into personal investments.

The scheme ran about seven months, June 2022 to January 2023, before investigators traced the money and froze the accounts.

When payment authorization rests on delivery records the carrier itself submits, the platform is billing on trust — and a program that pays against self-entered confirmations will be farmed.

Sentencing has not been set; each count carries up to 20 years. Farajov will forfeit the two seized brokerage accounts and pay $993,979 in restitution. The case landed amid a 2024 federal audit of the same fiscal years that found 69,225 paid trips worth about $197.9 million lacked reliable proof-of-delivery documentation. USPS challenged that, saying records later supported about $195 million, and auditors said USPS did not verify documentation enough before paying. USPS has also tightened verification, eliminating manual confirmation codes. The audit did not tie those findings to Farajov.