A federal judge in Bridgeport, Connecticut, sentenced a 25-year-old Trumbull man to 24 months in prison for a fraud that cost Amazon more than $3.5 million through its Amazon Relay trucking platform. The scheme logged more than 1,000 trailer movements that never occurred, billed across 23 trucking accounts, at an average of roughly $3,500 per phantom assignment.

U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley imposed the sentence Wednesday. Ameer Nasir received two years behind bars, three years of supervised release, and a restitution order of $3,547,090.93. He must report to prison on Nov. 12.

The case laid bare how a single bad actor scaled one scheme across a digital freight marketplace, and it landed years after Amazon began tightening identity controls on Relay.

How the scheme worked

Amazon Logistics contracts with interstate motor carriers through Amazon Relay, which connects trucking companies with transportation assignments across the retail giant's distribution network — including moves of loaded equipment and empty trailers.

Nasir registered, or caused the registration of, 23 trucking businesses with Amazon Logistics. One account operated under his own company, Pak Express Transport LLC. According to federal court records:

• Other accounts used identifying information belonging to unrelated trucking and transportation companies.
• The misappropriated data included names, addresses and U.S. Department of Transportation numbers.
• Prosecutors did not specify how many of the 23 accounts involved hijacked identities, and court records do not explain how Nasir obtained the information.

The fraud ran from December 2019 through February 2021. Nasir used Relay to obtain assignments and virtually check trailers out and back in, prosecutors charged. The platform typically relied on GPS geofencing to verify device and trailer location — but Nasir evaded that safeguard by misusing Relay's manual override.

What did a phantom move look like?

One assignment dated May 16, 2020, shows Pak Express moving a trailer from Kent, Washington, to Lakeland, Florida. Amazon Logistics paid $4,566.41 for the trip, according to the indictment. Prosecutors charged the movement never occurred.

Nasir ultimately represented more than 1,000 nonexistent movements as completed. Using 1,000 assignments as a baseline, the $3.5 million loss works out to roughly $3,500 per assignment — a payout level that let the scheme accumulate seven-figure losses one linehaul at a time.

From FBI arrest to guilty plea

A federal grand jury indicted Nasir on 13 wire fraud counts in May 2025. Authorities arrested him May 8 following an FBI investigation in which Amazon assisted. Nasir pleaded guilty to one wire fraud count on March 6, 2026. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elena L. Coronado prosecuted the case.

Wire fraud carries a maximum federal prison term of 20 years. Nasir remained free on a $300,000 bond after his plea. Sentencing had originally been set for May 29 before moving to October, when Judge Dooley handed down the two-year term.

Could this happen on Relay today?

The scheme ended in February 2021, which leaves an uncomfortable question for carriers and shippers using digital freight platforms now: the underlying activity is more than five years old, and the platform Nasir exploited has changed.

Amazon has since introduced additional fraud controls within Relay, including identity and driver verification measures, according to previous FreightWaves reporting. The indictment documents how Nasir gamed the system more than five years ago; whether the same scheme could succeed today remains unclear.

The commercial lesson for brokers and shippers is straightforward. One compromised trucking identity can create access far beyond a single load — Nasir's 23 accounts reached more than 1,000 assignments before anyone stopped a $3.5 million bleed. Continuous verification of carrier identities at each transaction, not a one-time onboarding check, is what exposes that kind of drift before the next phantom load gets paid.