NJ Trucker Perez Salcedo Sentenced in $900K Fraud

ALBANY, NY – Juller Perez Salcedo, 45, of Garfield, New Jersey, is facing the consequences for a brazen scheme that bilked a New York bedding company out of over $422,000 and cheated the IRS out of nearly half a million more. Salcedo was sentenced today to three years of probation, including six months of home detention, after pleading guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud and honest services fraud, alongside charges of tax evasion.

The scheme, which ran from at least 2015 to 2019, centered around Salcedo’s New Jersey-based trucking company. He partnered with Leonard Hummel, the transportation manager at a bedding company’s distribution facility in West Coxsackie, New York. Salcedo funneled kickbacks to Hummel in exchange for access to the bedding company’s trucks and drivers. This allowed Salcedo to avoid legitimate transportation costs, a classic hustle for squeezing extra profit.

But the deception didn’t stop there. Salcedo then submitted fraudulent invoices to the bedding company, claiming his own trucks had transported the goods from West Coxsackie to his yard in Clifton, New Jersey – even when they hadn’t. The bedding company paid these bogus bills, resulting in a staggering $422,170.86 in losses. This wasn’t just a paperwork error; it was a calculated effort to steal.

The IRS wasn’t fooled either. Between January 2014 and April 2018, Salcedo actively concealed his income. He cashed gross receipts checks, fed false information to his tax preparers, and conveniently “forgot” to report those cashed checks on his federal income tax returns. The total tax evasion amounted to a hefty $477,090. Salcedo thought he could outsmart the system, but the feds caught on.

U.S. District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino didn’t show leniency. In addition to the probation and home detention, Salcedo was ordered to pay $422,170.86 in restitution to the bedding company and $477,090.00 to the IRS. A money judgment of $422,170.86, representing the proceeds of the fraud, was also ordered for forfeiture. His co-conspirator, Leonard Hummel, previously received a two-year probation sentence on May 17, 2024, and was ordered to pay $161,784 in restitution and forfeit $17,000.

The investigation was a joint effort by the Albany Field Office of the FBI, led by Special Agent in Charge Craig L. Tremaroli, and the Newark Field Office of IRS-CI, led by Special Agent in Charge Jenifer L. Piovesan. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Wentworth-Ping prosecuted the case, proving that even complex fraud schemes will be exposed and prosecuted. This case serves as a stark warning: crime doesn’t pay, and the long arm of the law will eventually catch up.