New Jersey trucking company owner charged in $4.6M overbilling scheme

A New Jersey man took part in a multiyear conspiracy to overbill Williams-Sonoma Inc. and a transportation and logistics company for trucking services to the tune of over $4 million, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of New Jersey.

Jose Pena, 46, of Monroe Township, is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, acting U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna announced in a news release.

Pena owned and operated a carrier that subcontracted with a national transportation and logistics company, referred to only as “Company-1” in the complaint, to deliver for Williams-Sonoma (NYSE: WSM) out of the home goods company’s Cranbury, New Jersey, distribution center.

From mid-2018 through late 2020, he and others conspired to overbill Williams-Sonoma and Company-1 by more than $3.6 million in deliveries and services that Pena and his company did not perform, the U.S. attorney stated in the Wednesday release. Pena paid the co-conspirators with kickbacks including money, a Rolex watch and an SUV, authorities said.

An internal audit uncovered the fraud, but after the companies stopped contracting with Pena, he contracted directly with Williams-Sonoma in September 2021 after hiding his interest in another carrier, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

He and some of his co-conspirators then overbilled the company through June 2024 for “fabricated deliveries,” creating losses for Williams-Sonoma of about $1 million, authorities allege.

Co-conspirators Raymond DeLeon and Cintia Elaxcar, who had both worked at Company-1, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in January to a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for their roles in the scheme.

DeLeon, 38, of Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, received more than $200,000 in kickbacks, and Elaxcar, 40, of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, got more than $430,000.

DeLeon was an operations general manager at Company-1, and Elaxcar was a billing and dispatch manager there. Both played a role in having fraudulent billing requests submitted to Williams-Sonoma and Company-1, authorities said.

Conspiracy to commit wire fraud carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, as well as a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the gain or loss from the crime, whichever is greater.

FreightWaves has reached out to an attorney for Pena.

The U.S. attorney’s office said Thursday that Pena has not yet entered a plea.

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