WASHINGTON, DC/Southampton, NY (BBN) (Update on August 19, 2020 to include interviews with US Senator John Boozman (R-Arkansas) and US Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Shinnecock Vice Chairman Lance Gumbs)
President Donald J. Trump unilaterally threw the White House behind US independent operator truckers wildcat protest against “price gouging” by multi-billion dollars freight brokers such as Cincinnati, Ohio-based Total Quality Logistics (TQL) during the national Covid-19 crisis.
[United States Transportation Alliance Founder and CEO Mike Landis and Ezlogz founder and CEO CJ “Sergey” Karman filmed by Capitol Intelligence/BBN using CI Glass following White House West Wing meeting with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Federal Motor Carrier Safety (FMCSA) Administration Acting Director Jim Mullen following 20 day trucker protest on price fixing and price gouging by freight brokers on Constitution Avenue behind the White House on May 20, 2020]
The initial organizer of the protest, Rick Santiago, said he brought independent truckers to Washington DC to demand that the US Department of Justice investigates illicit price gouging by freight brokers under the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act that criminalizes corporate collusion in price fixing.
US Attorney General William P. Barr directed New Jersey US Attorney Craig Carpenito to open a price fixing and price gouging by frieght brokers. New Jersey US Attorney General Carpenito is reponsible for investigating any allegation of illicit gouging or price fixing during the Covid-19.
The FBI official said that New Jersey Assistant United States Attorney Andrew Macurdy has already been assigned to the case.
In an interview with Capitol Intelligence in front of the White House, Santiago said freight brokers are charging up to a 65% commission on freight loads, a commission so high that small trucking firms are now losing money transporting essential goods during the Covid-19 national emergency.
[US trucking activist Rick Santiago speaks to Capitol Intelligence/BBN using CI Glass on independent operator trucker protest in front of the White House calling President Donald Trump and US Attorney William P. Barr to take Sherman Act anti-trust actio against commission price gouging by logistic brokers such as Ken Oaks’ Cincinnati,Ohio-based Total Quality Logistics (TQL) at Constitution Ave in Washington, DC on May 3, 2020]
Santiago’s grassroot trucker protest on Constitution Avenue succeeded in winning President Trump attention on Sunday (May 3, 2020) and al fresco and unprecedented meeting between the truckers and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on May 13, 2020 and than a historical West Wing summit attended by United States Transportation Alliance founder and CEO Mike Landis and Ezlogz founder and CEO CJ “Sergey” Karman on Wednesday May 20, 2020.
Karman and Landis said the West Wing summit meeting with Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Administration (FMCSA) Deputy Adminstrator Jim Mullen opened the administration eyes regarding the plight of independent owner/operator [with less than 10 trucks] represent a little less than 90% of the 3.5m truckers working in America today.
[White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows speaks with Dc truck protestors CJ Sergey Karman and USTA CEO Mike Landis and David Kamaz on Constitution Avenenue behind the White House on May 13, 2020]
The truckers originally caught the president’s attention when he was coming back after holding a televised Fox News town hall at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday, May 3, 2020.
“The president was coming back from the Fox News Town Hall at the Lincoln Memorial when he saw our truckers honking their horns,” US combat veteran and independent trucker, J. Grider said. “He rolled down his window to find out what the truckers were doing. He then sent two staffers to take information about our protest.”
Trump then issued his presidential tweet in support a few hours after speaking with the truckers.
President Trump repeated his support for the independent truckers and said the truckers were being “price gouged: by freight brokers such as TQL and Eden Prarie, Minnesota-based CH Robinson [NASDAQ: CHRW] during a phone interview with Fox News on Friday, May 8 2020.
[TQL Founder and CEO Ken Oaks talks about the opportunity he saw in the marketplace, which fueled the start of TQL. Oaks was honored by the National Alumni Association of UD with a Special Achievement Award in 2012.]
Santiago and Grider said they were intially asking President Trump to have US Attorney General William P. Barr and US Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Makan Delrahim to open a full-scale antitrust investigation into freight operators such as Ken Oaks’ USD 3.6bn TQL.
On Monday (May 18, 2020), President Trump ordered US Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia to help the truckers in their protest against freight brokers.
The Justice Department Antitrust Divisioon has already received a formal complaint prepared by DLA Piper Seattle, Washington-based partner Anthony Todaro alleging “systemic” circumvention of federal disclosure requirements under 49 C.F.R. § 371.3 (c) by major freight brokers.
“By refusing to comply with the disclosure requirements, brokers are not compelled to compete over price — the fees they take,” DLA wrote to the DOJ Antitrust, adding. “The brokers have, in effect, formed a cartel and have – as an industry – colluded to conceal brokers fees from drivers amd trucking business owners in violation of the regulations.”
DLA Piper’s Todaro asked the DOJ to issue subpoeanas against TQL; CH Robinson; Chicago-based Coyote Logistics; Lowell, Arkansas-based J.B. Hunt [NASDAQ: JBHT]; Milford, Delaware-based Burris Logistics unit Trinity Logistics; and Greenbay, Wisconsin-based Schneider National, INC [NYSE: SNDR].
DLA Piper filed the complaint on behalf of Ezlogz, Inc, a small truckers logistics and compliance support company using blockchain hyperledger technology owned and managed by C.J. Sergey Karman of Camas, Washington while Rick Santiago is represented by Cleveland-based powerhouse Baker Hostetler.
[Ezlogz founder and CEO CJ “Sergey” Karman speaks to Capitol Intelligence/BBN using CI Glass after meeting with White Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on freight broker price gougimg and collusion at the National Law Enforcement Memorial service for fallen officers and Constitution Avenue in Washington, DC. May 13, 2020]
DOJ spokesperson Alison Kjergaard declined to confirm or deny whether the Department of Justice has opened a price fixing or collusion investigation into US freight brokers or whether US Asst. Attorney General Makan Delrahim is aware of the collusion and price fixing allegations against major freight brokers.
The protest, which brought truckers around the nation to Washington, DC, was a grassroots effort after trucker grievances were ignored by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) trade group and International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa, the organizers told Capitol Intelligence/BBN.
On Friday (May 15, 2020), the truckers led by Karman held a boisterous rally at the US Capitol Building and the Department of Justice to demand that a formal antitrust investigation be opened on alleged price fixing and collusion by the major freigh broker companies.
[US Congressman Don Bacon (R-Nebraska), US Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Co.) and US Rep.Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) speak to Capitol Intelligence/BBN using CI Glass on trucker protest demanding Sherman Act antitrust investigation into freight brokers organized by EzLogz founder CJ “Sergey” Karman at the US Capitol on May 15, 2020]
While initially unaware of the original intent of the trucker protest, a number of Congressmen interviewed by Capitol Intelligence agreed that the trucker calls for antitrust investigation into freight brokers such as TQL, CH Robinson and JB Hunt made sense.
Congressman Ed Perlmutter (D-Co.) said he knows the Sherman Act very well and had represented trucking companies in the past while Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) noted that truckers seem to have a legitimate grievance.
Don Bacon, a Republican congressman from rural Nebraska close to President Trump, said he will study the matter closely and speak with other members of Congress on possible action that can be taken.
Answering a question on the trucker protest from Capitol Intelligence, US House Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said allowing congress to carryout such congressional probes such as price fixing by freight brokers is why Speaker of House Nancy Pelosi needs to recall the House of Representatives.
The independent truckers will stay in Washington, DC until they see concrete action from President Donald Trump and the administration, United States Transportation Alliance co-founder and CEO Mike Landis told Capitol Intelligence in an interview.
[United States Transportation Alliance (USTA) co-founder and CEO Mike Landis speaks to Capitol Intelligence/CI GCA using CI Glass on independent owner trucker protest at the White House in Washington, DC on May 7, 2020]
Landis said more than 60 trucks have congregated in front of the White House so far and estimates that hundreds more could arrive in support of the grassroots protest.
Many of the truckers said that the situation is so bad that they have not had a load in over a month.
In a recent development, trucker protest leaders Rick Santiago and CJ Karman have joined forces demanding that US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnunchin transform part of the administrations Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) into working capital loans to small businesses such as independent trucker operators.
The International Monetary Fund and World Bank both sustain that working capital finance, as opposed to traditional lending, leads to significantly greater job growth and sustainable developement.
Karman and Santiago said the PPP program had done nothing for indepedent truckers, small minority and veteran owned businesses that lack leverage and political clout with financial institutions.
The working capital loans would be used by independent operators to modernize and expand their fleets, utilize IT innovation to improve load management and ultimately create thousands of new jobs as the US economy comes out of the Covid-19 depression.
The truckers already have a receptive ally regarding the Working Capital initiative with Republican Arkansas Senator John Boozman who sits on the powerful Senate committees of Agriculture and Appropiations.
[US Senator John Boozman (R-Arkansas) speaks with Capitol Intelligence/BBN using CI Glass on Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin transforming Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds in working capital loans to US truckers, minoirty and veteran owned businesses at the US Senate on August 6, 2020]
The push for working capital loans for American small businesses is getting notable bipartisan support from the powerful Congressional Black Caucus which controls the US House Financial Services Commitee under Maxine Waters (D-CA) and chairmanships of other key House committees.
Maxine Waters was successful in lobbying Treasury Secretary Mnuchin to earmark a significant amount of the USD 3trln in stimulus funds to minority and community banks and not merely to major banking groups such as Bank of America and Wells Fargo.
Brooklyn congressman and CBC member Hakeem Jeffries has already been tipped to replace Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as the next Speaker of the House.
Another powerful forces joining the truckers call for working capital loans are Native American tribes whose businesses have been historically discriminated against by US financial institutions.
Joining Karmann and Santiago is Lance Gumbs, the vice chairman of The Shinnecock Indian Nation of Southampton, New York and the vice president of the National Congress of American Indians.
Gumbs also said that American Indian businesses were entirely overlooked in the president’s stimulus package and that tribal businesses across the nation are hurting like never before.
[Shinnecock Indian Nation Vice Chairman and National Congress of American Indians Vice President Lance Gumbs speaks to Capitol Intelligence/BBN using CI Glass on the struggle for education, access to capital and healthcare for the Shinnecock Nation and American Indians during Black Lives Matter protest and the Covid-19 panedemic at the Shinnecock Reservation in Southhampton, NY. June 22, 2020]
The Shinnecock Nation, like the US truckers, are force not to underestimate. The Shinnecock reservation, located in the center of the Hamptons. is located in the center of economic and political power of the United States where Michael Bloomberg, John Paulson and Len Blavatnik all have massive estates and current king makers in the US presidential and Congressional elections.
In fact, Gumbs himself probably knows President Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka better than almost anyone as he personally negotiated with father and daughter about building a Trump-branded casino on Shinnecock land (in trust) outside of New York City.
The unique common cause between Us truckers and American Indians may make national headlines in the coming days or weeks.
Any successful Sherman Act prosecution by the DOJ’s Barr and Delrahim against freight operators such as Ken Oaks’ TQL will almost be certainly followed by Sherman Act Section 7 (Clayton Act) by minority and independent media publishers against Facebook (NASDQ:FB) owner Mark Zukerberg.
Talks about mounting a Sherman Antitrust case against Zuckerberg have already been started by Dorothy Leavell, the Chicago-based publisher of the Chicago Defender/Gary Crusader/Chicago Reader and the publisher of the Florence, SC newspaper The Community Times and leader of 2020 Black Media Coalition, Larry D. Smith.
Both DOJ Antitrust head Makan Delrahim and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioner Christine C. Wilson are aware that minority and independent media owners are preparing to take action against Facebook and other social media companies for their dominant position over the US advertising market.
Closer to home, Washington, DC Attorney General Karl Racine is suing Facebook in a case being heard by DC Superior Court Judge Hon. Fern Flanagan Saddler for violating DC residents’ privacy rights for illicit data sharing with controversial political advocacy group, Cambridge Analytica.
[US Congressman and likely next Speaker of the House U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) speaks to Capitol Intelligence/BBN using CI Glass on why House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler allowed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Google CEO Sundar Pichai for being allowed to testify remotely at home rather in person during today’s Antitrust Subcommittee Antitrust hearing at the Rayburn House Office Building and the importance of the Congressional Black Caucus at the US Capitol on July 29, 2020]
Open Markets Institute, the DC-based non-for-profit anti-monopoly advocacy group, is currently investigating whether Facebook colluded with major mainstream newspaper publishers such as Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp (NASDAQ; NWSA) and the New York Times (NYSE:NYT) of A.G. Sulzerberger through selective distribution of over USD 100m in grants and ad buys to “help” the newspaper industry, Open Markets Executive Director Barry C. Lynn told Capitol Intelligence.
“Facebook is robbing Peter to pay Paul,” said one media publisher involved in the prospective Sherman Act action. “Facebook market capitalization of nearly USD 600bn is almost entirely made from taking advertising revenues of original content news media.”
The publisher repeated the famous quote by a major Chicago retailer when Rupert Murdoch informed him of purchase of the Chicago Sun-Times: “But Rupert, your readers are our shoplifters.”
By PK Semler in Washington, DC
For more information please call +1-202-549-3399 or email pks@capitolintelgroup.com
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