LOUISVILLE, Ky. (FOX 56) – Two Kentuckians have been indicted on charges of wire fraud and disaster fraud.
A Department of Justice news release said 32-year-old Yeniseis Saavedra and 33-year-old Alien Saavedra were indicted on Jan. 18 in Louisville and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and disaster fraud. Yeniseis was also charged with filing a false statement, disaster fraud, and aggravated identity theft.
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The department said the indictment alleges the two conspired to defraud factoring (trucking loan) companies by submitting false bills of lading. The indictment charged them with filing for lost wage assistance payments authorized by a Presidential Memorandum resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic with the Kentucky Office of Unemployment.
The filing for lost wage assistance payments was on behalf of Alien and failed to report that Alien was receiving wages from the motor carrier industry, according to the indictment.
Further, Yeniseis was charged with making a false statement to the United State Department of Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration when she falsely filed an application on behalf of another, identified as C.S., claiming C.S. would be operating a trucking company. C.S. was unaware of the application while Yeniseis ran the company.
Yeniseis was charged with disaster fraud filing for lost wage assistance payments, on behalf of C.S. They did not receive any of the lost wage payments, and instead, the wages were released to a bank account controlled by Yeniseis.
The charges of aggravated identity theft stemmed from the alleged use of C.S.’s identity and social security number without permission.
Yeniseis could face a minimum sentence of two years in prison to a maximum of 87 years. Alien faces a maximum sentence of 50 years in prison.