A federal court has sentenced a Georgia woman after pleading guilty late last year in a double brokering scheme.

Pauline Robinson-Kirkland was sentenced earlier this month in U.S. District Court, Albany, Ga. to one-year probation and ordered to pay $5,490 in restitution. 

The investigation revealed that Robinson-Kirkland accessed web sites advertising loads of commercial freight available for transport, according to the U.S. Transportation Department’s Office of Inspector General. She would then bid on the loads using her various company names with Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration broker authority. 

Once Robinson-Kirkland was awarded a bid, she allowed the sender to believe her trucking business would deliver the freight and accepted payment from the sender for the contracted price. After accepting the bid, she immediately re-advertised the job, using a different company name. She then hired legitimate trucking companies to pick up the freight and deliver it to the intended destination, never disclosing that she had already received payment from the sender. As a result, the legitimate trucking companies were never paid.