More former Polar executives sentenced

Photo: Freedomz/ Shutterstock

The former vice president of marketing, revenue management and network planning at Polar Air Cargo has been handed a 32-month prison sentence for taking part in a massive, long running scheme to defraud the cargo airline of more than $32m in revenue.

Abilash Kurien was sentenced by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York after being charged alongside nine others in April last year.

The case did not go to trial as Kurien had pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.

He personally received kickbacks totalling over $7m, said the US Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York in a press release on October 1.

“Abilash Kurien betrayed his employer’s trust,” said US Attorney Damian Williams. “Over the course of more than a decade, Kurien took millions of dollars in kickbacks for himself and caused tens of millions in dollars in losses to the company he worked for.  This Office and our law enforcement partners will not stop in rooting out corporate fraud.”

In addition to the prison term, Kurien was sentenced to three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to forfeit $7,192,064.41 and to make restitution to Polar in the amount of $22,956,341.

Former vice president of operations, system performance, and quality Carlton Llewellyn was also recently sentenced to six months in prison after  pleading guilty to one count of conspiring to commit wire fraud in January.

The 10 defendants involved in the case were accused of taking part in a fraud scheme that operated for over a decade and resulted in the company losing an estimated $52m, while impacting nearly all operations. The scheme allegedly saw relations with GSAs, freight forwarders, handling and trucking service providers corrupted.

The fraudulent activity is understood by law officials to have spanned at least in or about 2009 through to about July 2021.

In August, former executive Robert Schirmer was sentenced to 18 months in prison for his part in the scheme.

Additionally, former chief operating officer Lars Winkelbauer was in May sentenced to four years in prison taking part in the scheme.

There are also six co-defendants that owned and operated various Polar vendors and customers.

Nine of the defendants charged in this case have pleaded guilty.  Skye Xu, the remaining defendant, is scheduled for trial on October 28.

10 people charged with defrauding Polar Air Cargo Worldwide

Schirmer sentenced in Polar fraud case

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Rebecca Jeffrey

Rebecca Jeffrey
New to aviation journalism, I joined Air Cargo News in late 2021 as deputy editor. I previously worked for Mercator Media’s six maritime sector magazines as a reporter, heading up news for Port Strategy. Prior to this, I was editor for Recruitment International (now TALiNT International). Contact me on: [email protected]