A California trucking company owner has pleaded guilty to a $2.1 million credit card fraud scheme built on nearly 100 stolen identities, with proceeds traced to accounts he controlled in Turkey. Hasan Korkmaz, 45, of Las Vegas, admitted all 18 counts — bank fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft — on October 15 in federal court.

Korkmaz operated San Diego Logistics Group Inc. in Santee, California. Federal prosecutors say he ran what's known as a credit card "bust-out" scheme during 2022 and 2023. The method is straightforward. You open accounts under real people's names, drain the credit, and never intend to repay.

He obtained names, birth dates and Social Security numbers to open the fraudulent accounts, according to the DOJ. He also submitted checks from nonexistent accounts or accounts without sufficient funds — a trick that temporarily restored credit limits so he could keep spending. Individual charges reached $18,500. Total losses exceeded $2,103,000 across two banks.

San Diego Logistics Group was among the businesses processing the fraudulent charges. Prosecutors did not identify what services those payments supposedly covered, and court filings do not establish whether any actual freight moved.

How did he get caught?

Korkmaz stayed overseas for roughly 18 months after the scheme. He returned to the United States, and authorities arrested him in June 2025. Prosecutors traced the proceeds into financial accounts he controlled in Turkey. The Justice Department has not identified the two banks or explained how he obtained the victims' personal information.

What do the carrier's federal filings show?

The FMCSA records raise questions of their own. San Diego Logistics Group holds USDOT 3210732 and MC 1002578. Its November 2023 MCS-150 filing reported three trucks, five CDL drivers, and 2,948,000 miles traveled in 2022.

Do the arithmetic. That's roughly 983,000 miles per truck in a single year. The American Transportation Research Institute put the 2022 industry average at 78,863 miles per truck. The carrier's reported mileage runs more than 12 times that figure.

Two explanations fit: an inaccurate filing, or a larger fleet operating that year. Neither is confirmed, and the numbers come from the carrier's own paperwork. Its registered cargo categories — general freight, refrigerated food, fresh produce, meat and U.S. mail — don't independently prove deliveries happened.

What does this change for brokers and shippers?

The regulatory timeline matters here. FMCSA granted common carrier authority on December 6, 2021. The agency then opened six involuntary revocation proceedings during 2022 and 2023, discontinuing each one — a pattern FMCSA commonly follows when insurance lapses and carriers later restore compliance. Regulators finally revoked the authority on January 2, 2024. The company's common and broker authority now sit inactive, and insurance records show prior cancellations with no active primary liability coverage.

Federal records do not connect any of those regulatory problems to Korkmaz's crimes. But the lesson for freight buyers is plain. A carrier can hold active authority, file paperwork, and still be the vehicle — literally — for financial fraud. Verification has to go beyond checking the MC number: ownership, insurance continuity and filing consistency all belong in the file.

What happens next?

The indictment carried 12 bank fraud counts (30-year maximum each), two money laundering counts under 18 U.S.C. Section 1957 (10 years each), and four aggravated identity theft counts carrying a mandatory consecutive two-year term. Statutory maximums don't predict the actual sentence.

U.S. District Judge James E. Simmons Jr. will sentence Korkmaz on January 8, 2027, at 9 a.m. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Mokhtari and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Rookard are prosecuting case 25-cr-1405-JES.