Azerbaijani National Indicted for $1 Million Wire Fraud and Money Laundering Offense Against the United States Postal Service

Orlando, Florida - Khayyam Arif Oglu Farajov (age 40) has been charged by indictment with five counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison for each count. The indictment also notifies Farajov that the United States intends to forfeit two personal investment accounts, seized by the United States, which were involved in the money laundering and are alleged to contain the proceeds of the offenses. United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe made the announcement.

According to the indictment, Farajov owned and operated a freight brokerage company called Talishco LLC. In May 2022, Farajov enrolled in the United States Postal Service's (USPS) Freight Auction program. Through Freight Auction, Farajov bid on and was awarded hundreds of contracts to transport U.S. Mail across the country on behalf of the USPS. For the majority of these contracts, Farajov failed to transport the mail or hire anyone else to do so, making false excuses to the USPS about why his trucks had not arrived on schedule. Despite failing to deliver the loads, Farajov would then log back into Freight Auction, manually enter bogus delivery information, and get paid.

Farajov obtained more than $1 million from this scheme between June 2022 and January 2023. After he received the money, he funneled it through a series of bank accounts belonging to shell companies he owned. After reconsolidating the fraud proceeds into two personal investment brokerage accounts, he invested the fraud proceeds in the stock market for his personal enrichment.

An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.

This case was investigated by the USPS Office of Inspector General. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Richard Varadan. Assistant United States Nicole Andrejko is handling the forfeiture.