Inside the hunt for the masterminds of a double-brokering scheme

Hundreds of trucking companies have been allegedly defrauded in an elaborate scheme utilizing a controversial practice called double-brokering. After months of investigating, co-host Clarissa Hawes got a tip that led to a series of bizarre phone calls with the man who owned a freight brokerage at the center of the operation. He told her: “You've got a lot of angry people … trying to find out who is trying to find them, who is trying to hurt their kids, their families.” Our latest episode wades into Hawes' investigation into a network of companies in Southern California connected to the scheme, and her efforts to find the people responsible for it. It led her to a transportation executive named Steve Avetyan, who once boasted of handing out Rolex watches — he called them “Rollies” — as bonuses to his best sales staff. Avetyan claimed to be someone else when Hawes first called him. He eventually admitted to being Avetyan, but denied any involvement in the double-brokering network. Co-host and producer Nate Tabak joines Hawes for the episode. Read more Former employees shed light on sophisticated double-brokering network Freight fraud: Burgeoning double-brokering scheme like ‘whack-a-mole’ CEO denies ties to sophisticated double-brokering scheme in Southern California Follow Long-Haul Crime Log on Apple Podcasts Follow Long-Haul Crime Log on Spotify More FreightWaves Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices