Trucking news and briefs for Tuesday, April 28, 2026:
FMCSA adds ID verification requirement for employers to Clearinghouse
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) on Monday announced improvements to its Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse online database.
New identity verification requirements for certain Clearinghouse users, including employers, will strengthen fraud prevention, improve record accuracy, and enhance accountability for over six million users in the database, the agency said.
“Safety is non-negotiable at FMCSA, and that means ensuring the systems we rely on are secure, accurate and trustworthy,” said FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs. “By strengthening identity verification, we are closing gaps that could be exploited by bad actors, protecting the integrity of the data, and reinforcing confidence across the entire commercial driver safety industry.”
Under the new requirements, medical review officers (MROs), substance abuse professionals (SAPs), third-party administrators, and employers will be required to take additional steps to verify their identities within the FMCSA database.
The new process will be completed using Idemia, a company specializing in secure identity verification and used by the Department of Homeland Security at airports across the country. Future phases will extend the new requirements to most other users, though commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders are already verified through state systems.
[Related: Feds reclassify marijuana, still banned for truckers]
Fraudster gets prison time, huge fines for trucking-related Ponzi scheme
A New Jersey man has been sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for perpetrating a trucking-related Ponzi scheme.
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, announced that Arsen Lusher was sentenced to prison for the scheme that defrauded more than 20 investors of nearly $9 million dollars. On Aug. 18, 2025, Lusher pled guilty to one count of wire fraud.
“Today’s 42-month sentence comes at the end of a too common story: a fast-talking fraudster promising exceptional returns but not giving investors basic information,” Clayton said. “Arsen Lusher lied to victims about the nature of his business to line his own pockets. When the walls came closing in, Lusher doubled down, creating false documents to try to lull his victims into a false sense of security about their investments. Lusher’s fraud was brazen, and it cost his victims nearly $9 million. A good rule of thumb for investors: no audit, no investment.”
According to the charging documents and other filings and statements made in court, from at least 2017 through at least February 2021, Lusher engaged in a scheme in which he and his associates solicited investments from victims, usually by representing that they had a profitable trucking business that enjoyed delivery and installation contracts with multiple large retailers.
Lusher and his associates typically represented that the victims’ investments would fund the purchase of trucks and guaranteed the victims high rates of return over a fixed period -- typically between 30 and 40 percent over one or two years. In that way, he succeeded in raising approximately more than $40 million from his victims during the scheme.
Lusher, however, did not have a large trucking business, and he did not invest the victims’ money into any trucking business. Instead, he paid earlier victims with later victims’ funds, sustaining the scheme for years.
While he was stealing money from the victims, the defendant lived a lavish life, the U.S. Attorney’s office said -- gambling “millions of dollars at casinos and online, winning as much as $100,000 in a single sitting. The defendant also used funds from his companies’ corporate bank accounts to finance personal expenses; taking a trip to China in 2019 that included a “high-end shopping spree;” and more.
During the scheme, neither Lusher in his personal capacity nor any of the companies that the defendant used to perpetrate the scheme filed federal tax returns.
After years of fraud, in late 2020 and early 2021, the scheme collapsed, leaving the victims with losses of at least $8,740,440. As the scheme came crashing down, Lusher created numerous false documents and shared them with his victims for the purpose of continuing to solicit investments and lulling victims into a false sense of security with respect to their investments.
In addition to the prison term, Lusher, 49, of Millstone, New Jersey, was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $8,740,440 in forfeiture and $8,740,440 in restitution.
[Related: Fleet owner ordered to pay $51M in restitution from Ponzi scheme]
FBI asking for help in locating missing truck driver
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Tampa, Florida, is asking for the public’s help in locating a missing truck driver.
The driver, Alejandro Jacomino Gonzalez, was last seen on April 17 at the Brevard County Rest Area on I-95 south in Grant-Valkaria. FBI Tampa said Gonzalez disappeared while transporting vehicles from Port of Brunswick, Georgia, to Miami. The truck and some of the cars have been recovered, but Gonzalez is still missing.
At approximately 1:21 a.m. on April 17, Gonzalez arrived at a truck stop in Brevard County, Florida, where he rested for several hours. At 7:49 a.m., GPS from the truck driven by Gonzalez indicates the truck drove South one exit and then turned North towards Jacksonville, Florida. Soon after, Gonzalez became unreachable and the truck was reported missing.
Later on April 17, the truck was located in Port Wentworth, Georgia, yet Gonzalez was not in the truck. Additionally, several vehicles were missing from the hauler. Since the discovery of the truck, three vehicles have been located in Florida. Others are still missing, along with Gonzalez.
Gonzalez, 41, is described as bald with a brown beard and mustache, a full sleeve tattoo on his left arm, a tattoo on his lower right arm, and a tattoo of the word "Elisia" on his right forearm. He is listed as 5’11” and 200 pounds.
The public is encouraged to share any videos or photographs taken in the early morning hours on April 17 at the Brevard County Rest Area in Grant-Valkaria, Florida, to www.fbi.gov/brevardhijacking. Anyone with information can also call 1-800-CALL FBI or submit tips to tips.fbi.gov.
