New Jersey Individual Sentenced in Connection with Moving Company Fraud Scheme

On September 13, 2022, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, Lola Larios was sentenced to 3 years of probation, including 1 year of home detention, and a $100 special assessment. Larios was also ordered to forfeit $282,634 to the United States. Between January 2016 and January 2019, Larios, an employee of a number of New Jersey based moving companies, conspired with the company’s owner to regularly extort customers by quoting “low-ball” estimates for moving household goods. Once the goods were loaded onto the moving trucks, company employees, Larios’ and others’ directed company employees to raise the moving price to double or triple the quoted estimates and to refuse to deliver the goods until customers paid the higher prices.

DOT-OIG conducted this investigation with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-OIG and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Source: USDOT Office of Inspector General