An Orlando trucking and freight brokerage owner has pleaded guilty to a scheme that extracted more than $1 million from the U.S. Postal Service, federal prosecutors announced Friday.

Khayyam Arif Oglu Farajov, 40, operated Talishco LLC in Orlando. His company participated in the USPS Freight Auction program, the spot-market bidding platform the Postal Service launched in October 2021 to secure nationwide bulk-mail trucking capacity.

Between June 2022 and January 2023, Farajov won hundreds of contracts through the platform while executing the fraud, according to the Department of Justice.

How did the scheme work?

Farajov routinely failed to send trucks on the routes he had won. When equipment failed to show for scheduled pickups, USPS employees contacted him, and he offered excuses — delayed drivers or claims that he had lost contact with them. Postal officials then reassigned the loads to other carriers.

Farajov later returned to Freight Auction and falsely marked those shipments as delivered. Those entries triggered payments for transportation Talishco never performed. Prosecutors calculated the proceeds at more than $1 million.

He then cycled the money through accounts tied to shell companies under his control, eventually consolidating the funds into two personal investment brokerage accounts. DOJ said he invested the proceeds in the stock market for personal enrichment. Federal investigators traced the funds and seized both accounts. The USPS Office of Inspector General handled the investigation.

What did the audit find?

USPS requires proof of delivery before paying Freight Auction suppliers. During the review period, acceptable records included tracking scans, electronic messages and manual submissions through its Logistics Gateway. A 2024 federal audit found weaknesses in how the agency validated those records.

Auditors identified 69,225 paid trips totaling approximately $197.9 million without reliable proof-of-delivery support across fiscal years 2022 and 2023 — the same window that overlaps Farajov's scheme.

USPS disputed the $197.9 million figure, saying it later located records supporting roughly $195 million of the payments and attributed the remaining $2.9 million to improper proof-of-delivery sources. Auditors maintained the agency had not properly verified the records before issuing payment.

The audit counted 102 participating transportation suppliers during fiscal years 2022 and 2023. USPS changed its verification procedures during that period, eliminating manual confirmation codes and stopping acceptance of certain electronic messages as standalone proof. The report does not link those changes directly to Farajov or Talishco.

What charges and penalties does he face?

A federal grand jury indicted Farajov on five wire fraud counts and one money laundering count; DOJ announced the indictment on March 16, 2026. The filing detailed the Freight Auction activity and the bogus delivery entries, and prosecutors sought forfeiture of the seized investment assets.

On Friday, nearly seven months after the indictment, Farajov pleaded guilty to one wire fraud count and one money laundering count. He agreed to forfeit the seized brokerage accounts and to pay $993,979 in restitution. Each conviction carries a maximum federal prison sentence of 20 years. The court has not yet scheduled sentencing.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Varadan prosecuted the case in the Middle District of Florida. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Andrejko handled the forfeiture proceedings.

Why does it matter for freight markets?

Digital freight platforms depend on accurate information linking online activity to physical transportation. This case quantifies the financial exposure when payment controls fail to verify that the freight actually moved — a risk that extends to any shipper or broker paying carriers on electronically submitted delivery confirmations. With USPS already tightening its proof-of-delivery validation after the audit, other platform operators are likely to face similar pressure to verify that digital records match physical execution.