A 27-year-old man Aaron G. Hynes, was arrested for illegally obtaining 2,100 DOT numbers. He planned to sell this numbers. According to police, he is going to spend 18 months.

Aaron G. Hynes was sentenced in U.S. District Court on Nov. 8 to 18 months in jail and two years of supervised release for making untrue statements to the FMCSA. He was also ordered to pay a $100 special assessment and $32,439 in restitution.

According to a statement from the DOT’s Office of the Inspector General Hynes pleaded guilty to filing a false and fictitious application with FMCSA to receive a DOT registration number In July 2017.

The DOT’s statement said:

“Hynes solicited assistance from computer programmers to create a program that would automatically fill out at least 10,000 applications for DOT numbers on the FMCSA website, using false and fictitious names, addresses, and telephone numbers of applicants and company officials. His purpose was to fraudulently obtain DOT numbers and sell them to motor carriers for a profit.”

Hynes caused to be submitted to the FMCSA, through its website about 2,100 fictional applications for DOT numbers. The submittal of the applications caused FMCSA to register fictitious applicants and issue about 2,100 DOT numbers.

The DOT said that fake applications of Hyne cost the FMCSA $51,389. More than half of that amount was for the time and resources FMSCA spent to recognize and deactivate the illegally obtained DOT numbers. The rest was to pay for execution of preventative measures.

Therefore, truckers, as well as trucking companies, should be cautious when choosing a filing agency to cooperate with. DOT Operating Authority is a certified and reliable filing agency that will help you to file your DOT number registration paperwork.