A woman has pleaded guilty to charges in U.S. District Court in Macon, Ga., for her involvement in a double-brokering freight scam.

On Nov. 20, Pauline Robinson-Kirkland, of Donalsonville, Ga., admitted to mail fraud. She was indicted in July 2012.

The investigation revealed that Robinson-Kirkland used the Internet to access websites where senders advertised loads of commercial freight available for transport, according to the Office of the U.S. DOT Inspector General.

She bid on these loads of freight using the names of her various companies, which are listed as having broker authority with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and was awarded the bids. 

Robinson-Kirkland led the sender to believe her trucking business would deliver the freight for the contracted price and the sender of the freight would send her payment at the agreed upon price. However, after accepting the bid, she would immediately re-advertise the job, using a different company name.

She accepted bids from legitimate trucking companies and had them deliver the freight from the sender to the intended destination, never disclosing that she had arranged for the sender to send payment to her. This resulted in the actual freight hauler never being paid. 

Robinson-Kirkland has yet to be sentenced.