A federal jury in Los Angeles convicted two California men Tuesday for running a cargo theft ring that used purchased, legitimate trucking companies to win real shipping contracts — then never delivered the freight. Prosecutors tied the operation to at least $2 million in losses nationwide.

Arshpreet Singh, 28, of Sacramento, and Vikramjeet Singh, 31, of Fontana, participated in a conspiracy that stretched from March 2024 through June 2025. The stolen cargo reads like a distributor's warehouse list: televisions, laptops, vacuums, LED lights, appliances, solar panels, shoes and tires.

The scheme's mechanics matter as much as the verdict. Conspirators purchased or fraudulently used established carriers to bid on authentic transportation contracts. Once they secured the jobs, they collected merchandise from warehouses — and the freight simply never arrived at its destination.

Buying credibility for $22,000

One transaction shows exactly how the operation gained access to freight. In March 2024, Arshpreet Singh met the owner of Texas-based Z&F Transportation LLC and bought the established carrier for roughly $22,000, according to trial evidence. Later that month, a co-conspirator picked up a load of televisions in Fontana under the company's name.

The shipment was booked to travel from California to Florida. The televisions never arrived, according to the Justice Department.

The strategy solved the core problem cargo thieves face: brokers increasingly screen out freshly minted carriers with no operating history. A purchased company with a real track record slips through those checks. Trial evidence showed the group repeated the playbook shortly afterward, buying Skyways Trucking LLC in May 2024. Under that identity, conspirators stole laptops, televisions, solar panels and additional merchandise.

They booked shipments through brokers including Uber Freight before taking possession of the loads. None of that freight reached the destinations listed on the transportation agreements.

Theft locations stretched across Southern California — Fontana, Long Beach, Compton, Chino, Commerce and surrounding cities — and reached as far as Grand Prairie, Texas.

Verdicts and sentencing

After a seven-day trial, jurors convicted both men of conspiracy to commit theft from interstate or foreign shipments. Arshpreet Singh also drew a guilty verdict on a count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Jurors acquitted Vikramjeet Singh on that separate wire fraud charge.

U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang scheduled sentencing for Jan. 20, 2027. Arshpreet Singh faces a statutory maximum of 20 years in federal prison; Vikramjeet Singh faces up to five years. Those are legal ceilings, not the terms the court will necessarily impose.

The investigation spanned California and Texas. The FBI's Inland Violent Crime Suppression Task Force and IRS Criminal Investigation worked the case, with assistance from police departments in Fontana and Fort Worth, plus sheriff's departments in San Bernardino, Riverside and Los Angeles counties.

What it means for brokers and shippers

The commercial implication is blunt: standard onboarding checks that verify a carrier's registration, insurance and operating history would not have flagged these identities. Z&F Transportation and Skyways Trucking were real companies with real credentials. The criminals didn't counterfeit authority — they bought it.

For brokers, that shifts the risk calculus from verifying whether a carrier exists to detecting whether ownership has recently changed hands. For shippers of high-value consumer electronics and appliances, the case underlines why double-brokering and identity-fraud losses keep climbing even as brokers tighten screening. A $22,000 acquisition cost against multimillion-dollar cargo exposure leaves the economics firmly in the thieves' favor.

Sentencing in January 2027 will close this case, but the underlying exposure remains: as long as carriers can be bought cheaply and re-registered without raising flags, brokers and shippers will need to monitor ownership changes, not just authority status, to keep legitimate loads out of criminal hands.