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Former employees shed light on sophisticated double-brokering network

Internal training videos show how alleged scheme operates, sources say

Training videos explain how a massive network of brokers and carriers operate an alleged double-brokering scheme in Southern California. Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves

This is Part III of an ongoing FreightWaves investigation into an alleged double-brokering ring based in Southern California. Click here for Part I. Click here for Part II.


All State Association CEO Steve Avetyan describes his family as “the originals” in setting up an elaborate network of transportation companies largely based in Southern California, but claims that his business “platform” is very different from his uncle’s and cousins’ double-brokering scheme that landed them in prison.

In March 2011, Steve’s uncle, Rubik Avetyan, and his cousins, Rubik’s sons Allen and Alfred, were sentenced to between four and five years in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $1.1 million to approximately 165 victims of an illicit double-brokering scheme. 

According to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Rubik Avetyan and his sons provided false information to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to obtain a motor carrier registration number for their new company, State Transport Inc., headquartered in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in July 2008. However, the three failed to disclose their prior relationships with Eternity Trucking and Express Freight Solutions, among others, which they helped establish over the previous three years. 


“They did some stupid things, they deserved to go to jail,” Steve Avetyan told FreightWaves. 

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General said in a statement that Rubik Avetyan and his sons used load boards to vie for freight from brokers, sometimes asking victims of the scheme for fuel advances and payment up front. Feds claim the three re-brokered the loads to legitimate motor carriers and didn’t pay them. Instead, they used a post office mailbox drop and a telephone service to forward calls and faxes from Pennsylvania to Southern California, where they lived, to conceal their identity and location.

Over a 10-month period, prosecutors claim 165 brokers and motor carriers fell victim to the double-brokering scheme before Rubik Avetyan and his sons were indicted in July 2009.

Steve Avetyan has never been convicted or charged in connection with a double-brokering scheme.


“We were the originals,” Steve Avetyan told FreightWaves, describing his family members’ immigration from Armenia to the U.S. to work in the industry. “When my uncle got into trucking in 1990-1991, nobody even knew what the trucking industry was.”

Avetyan said his uncle and cousins are again working in the trucking industry after completing their jail sentences.

‘New name, same game’

Avetyan describes his business model as a transportation services platform that helps other entrepreneurs build their trucking companies or brokerages. But it comes with a hefty price — All State gets 20% of clients’ revenue — in exchange for financing, truck access and its technology.

However, brokers and truckers told FreightWaves they’ve been burned by the vast network of over 600 companies, largely in Southern California, with alleged links to Avetyan and his childhood best friend, Alfred Megrabyan, who co-founded All State in 2003.

“When one MC number gets shut down for various reasons, another eight or nine pop up,” one source, who didn’t want to be named for fear of retaliation, told FreightWaves. “It’s a new name, but it’s the same game. They can all be traced back to All State.”

Hundreds of complaints over unauthorized re-brokering of loads, missing freight or nonpayment have been filed against transportation companies founded by Avetyan and Megrabyan, a source told FreightWaves. The original three companies are All State, headquartered in San Fernando, California, and two large brokerages that are still operating, Broadway Brokerage and TriStar Brokerage, both headquartered in Glendale, California.

Brokers told FreightWaves they’ve taken down FreightGuard reports linked to the Southern California network, claiming sales agents and employees of the businesses they reported harassed them with constant phone calls and spam emails until the reports were removed.

In one case, a freight broker — who filed a complaint against one of the Southern California companies over allegations of unauthorized re-brokering — said he grew concerned after the employee threatened to harm himself unless the report was taken down. 


“I called the Glendale Police to do a wellness check on the employee at the business address listed for this company,” the freight broker, who didn’t want to be named, told FreightWaves. “Police called back and said that nobody lived there.”

Logistics industry responds to burgeoning network

Joe Howard, who works for a Midwestern logistics company, has been tracking the burgeoning network of companies tied to the alleged double-brokering ring for nearly two years. 

“It honestly could be a full-time job,” Howard told FreightWaves.

He now works with his own network, including brokers and logistics specialists from around the country, who swap information as new MC numbers emerge with links to the original three freight brokerages operating in Southern California. 

Shutting down alleged load board scammers is tricky business, Howard admitted.

After All State, Broadway and TriStar were blocked from vying for loads on Oregon-based DAT’s load boards, Howard claims two new brokerages popped up — all parented by Massive 3PL Corp., headquartered in Edinburg, Texas, and Fargo Freight Inc. of La Crescenta, California.

Avetyan confirmed that DAT and other load board platforms “had shut down 300 users for alleged fraud,” but denied any claims of illegal double brokering can be linked to his network of companies or sales agents.

“I’ve never had a cop or FBI or somebody show up to my door,” he told FreightWaves. “Some people don’t look at all of the good that takes place. How many people are making a lot of money? How many people are doing really, really well because of what we’ve done, creating opportunities? Every single day, when people see me, they say, ‘Thank you for the opportunity.’”

All State and its transportation platform is lucrative, Avetyan said, claiming the company posted between $500 million and $600 million in revenue in 2020. 

“Some of these sales guys are making $100,000 a month,” he said.

Carrier411 CEO Darren Brewer told FreightWaves that he estimates double-brokering scams, including fraudulent fuel advances, cost the transportation industry more than $100 million per year.

All State’s platform compared to owning fast-food franchise

Avetyan told FreightWaves that he’s “in the industry” but “not doing trucking.” Instead, he compares All State’s transportation services platform to owning a fast-food restaurant franchise.

“People ask me to show them how to get into transportation,” Avetyan told FreightWaves. “It’s like opening a McDonald’s franchise. I give them tools.”

He also claims All State doesn’t have sales agents and that what he said during a 2018 interview on the podcast, Vibes, was an easy way to explain to listeners about how the company’s business platform worked. 

“I claimed they worked for me,” Avetyan said. “I’m the CEO of the company, but there are many, many businesses, small trucking companies, brokerages, 3PLs that have their own sales guys. They indirectly work for me.”

Watch and learn

A former sales agent claims All State co-founders Avetyan and Megrabyan are directly involved in the day-to-day operations of the branch offices or its franchises.

In fact, Avetyan monitors every branch office All State has helped establish, using video surveillance that is sent to a flat-screen TV in his office in San Fernando. 

All State CEO Steve Avetyan monitors branch offices within the network, a former sales agent claims.

He and Megrabyan have annual sales goals for each branch office and top earners receive perks like Rolex watches, trips on private planes to lavish banquets and vacations each year, the source told FreightWaves.

In a video message to All State’s branch offices in 2017, Avetyan names the top earners for each office that were picked to go by private plane to Las Vegas. The agents were also invited to bring their families along on vacation retreats to Cancun and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, a former employee told FreightWaves.

This contradicts Avetyan’s claims that the sales agents work independently once they start their transportation franchises.

“These sales agents, I don’t even know who they are,” he told FreightWaves. “I don’t cut their checks, I don’t pay them.”

All State also controls which motor carriers its agents use to move freight through a sophisticated technology platform, updated daily, that allows them to access how many trucks and trailers are available in specific freight lanes throughout the U.S.

Top earners of All State receive perks like Rolex watches and trips on private planes if they meet sales goals, former agents claim.

In a training video, obtained by FreightWaves, sales agents are coached to use motor carriers, mainly owner-operators, in All State’s network “because outside carriers don’t get posted on our boards.”

“We have direct relationships with these guys, they abide by our policies and procedures,” the voice on the recording, identified by a former employee as Armen Karibyan, another All State executive, states in the video.

Armen Karibyan also warns agents against using “outside” carriers not vetted through All State’s carrier compliance department to prevent double brokering. 

“The only way to even have access to outside carriers is if you have a load booked under All States. … It doesn’t matter if it’s from a broker or a shipper. As long as the load is booked under All State, you can move it outside,” Karibyan said on the video. “But outside, guys, it’s at your own risk. … Outside carriers are poor quality. … You have a risk of them hijacking you, double brokering, missing trucks.”

Using carriers outside of All State’s network is fraught with problems, Karibyan says on the video. 

“If you convince them [outside carriers] to take loads under your own motor carrier authority for some reason, you have a high risk — that means they can go directly to your customer, they’ll try to get paid directly, you can face a lot of issues,” he warns agents. “It’s completely at your own risk. I wouldn’t do it personally.”

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9 Comments

  1. Timothy cullen

    As a broker if you book loads with one truck CA carrier you inherit a lot of risk. Its a shame hardworking owner ops take the brunt of they’re deception and fraud.

  2. Johnny Irish

    The issue with the Glendale double brokering scheme has seemingly intensified in recent months, and in my opinion is a major issue. I’ve had some help with a lot of you here and I’ve started to notice a lot of trends.

    Like the post title references, don’t use any “carrier” that has that factoring company. Royalty Capital is owned by Steve Avetyan who also owned renowned 1000 freightgaurd report for double brokering brokerage All State Association.

    You can also check the DAT directory to see if an MC contacting you even has a DAT seat. If you have a spot load posted and they’re emailing you with an MC that doesn’t have a DAT that should be a red flag.

  3. Jenny

    Curious, why this Steve guy started talking just now LOL sounds like he was on board the whole time till just now he had a change of heart. I’m having trouble seeing the difference between brokers who take the difference from carriers selling freight from customers directly vs these brokers who have carrier connects taking the difference getting freight from other brokers. looks like the only problem is the unethical few who don’t pay carriers at the end like Steve’s uncle. Are the brokers just mad they can’t cover their loads to the carriers themselves? If that’s the case, they should be thanking them for covering their loads and saving the customers they couldn’t satisfy themselves.

    1. Bill

      We get placement after placement against these double broker scams, the difference is the word scam. If you are getting loads for $1200 and brokering everyone out at a $300 LOSS you are a scam and never intended to pay. That is what we find with this specific group over and over again. Why do they care what number they put on the rate con, if they aren’t ever gonna pay it. The other “major” scam group jacks rates up to.

      Imagine this, broker is offering too low of a rate for anyone to move the load. But these guys, who are getting loads from brokers usually without ever having an inspection on the truck they claim to have, are happy to take the load at that low rate, especially if that broker does quick pay. So they are actually getting $1164 to $1140 for the load, the broker is so ecstatic he is just gonna let it go that something doesn’t seem right, cause he will make more commission. Then the scammers will broker it for $1500 and if you ask for more “no problem” want them to put that they will pay you $300 an hour in detention, “no problem” whatever you want, “no problem” The ONLY thing the scammer worries about, is getting the load delivered and sending the bills immediately….

      I have more experience looking at scam brokers than anyone in the world, and it isn’t close. If a broker is being a pushover in negotiations or is willing to put stuff on the rate con that no legit broker ever would, they are 99% not going to be a legit broker. Period. AND the larger real brokerage that is giving the loads to scammers, as long as it gets delivered they are happy. We may force double payment on most double brokered loads we see, but even as the largest business of our kind, we probably only see 20%.

  4. Witt

    All they are doing is copying what the big 100 doses ! Fact of the matter is the FMCSA has allows this to happen, the developme4nt that suck 40% of freight charges off the top before the carrier ever see it, want why there is driver shortage. There are small brokerages that work the same way too . Glad Freight Waves finally figured it out.

Comments are closed.

Clarissa Hawes

Clarissa has covered all aspects of the trucking industry for 16 years. She is an award-winning journalist known for her investigative and business reporting. Before joining FreightWaves, she wrote for Land Line Magazine and Trucks.com. If you have a news tip or story idea, send her an email to [email protected].