CINCINNATI, OH – A young man killed by an Uzbek truck driver earlier this year in Ohio, along with several instances of illegal immigrant truck drivers involved in fatal crashes, has sparked a larger conversation in southwest Ohio about fraud, crime, immigration and how gaps in trucking industry oversight are putting Americans at risk.

Tobias «Toby» Forsythe, a 21-year-old goalkeeper from Ohio on the University of Massachusetts Lowell men’s soccer team, was killed July 5 when authorities say a semi-truck driven by 42-year-old Uzbek national Bekhzod Asrarov, who entered the country under the Biden administration’s diversity visa lottery program, rear-ended Forsythe’s Honda Accord on Interstate 71 in Madison County, Ohio.

It was later determined, according to court documents, that Asrarov could not speak or understand English well enough to communicate with responding state troopers without the use of Google Translate, despite holding an Ohio commercial driver’s license, and that he allegedly removed a dashboard camera from his truck after the fatal crash in an effort to conceal or destroy evidence.

«We cannot let truckers like Asrarov, who can’t read our road signs or speak to law enforcement, drive 80,000-pound rigs on America’s highways,» Transportation Secretary Sean posted on X after the crash.

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In southwest Ohio, a researcher known as Nodawolf has been sounding the alarm to his growing follower count about a vast network of trucking companies, many of them owned or operated by Uzbek nationals, that have popped up in communities like Loveland, Middletown, and Maineville, where Asrarov resides, in recent years and could be contributing to the unsafe practices that took the life of Forsythe, and many others across the country.

Nodawolf, who Digital granted anonymity due to the death threats he’s received from his online reporting, said his research has focused on what he describes as an interconnected network of Uzbek-linked trucking companies in southwest Ohio, including companies that have donated money toward construction of a local Islamic center, according to the center’s own website. 

«All of them have English violations and have manipulated ELDs,» Nodawolf said, referring to electronic logging devices that track a trucker’s driving hours and are intended to enforce federal limits on how long drivers can stay behind the wheel.

The Islamic Center, located in Maineville, told Digital that a «charitable contribution or participation in a community fundraising activity, by itself, should not be interpreted as evidence of an ownership, employment, contractual, commercial, or other business relationship with the Islamic Center or its leadership.»

A Digital review identified hundreds of trucking companies and other trucking entities registered in Maineville and surrounding southwest Ohio communities, including dozens that were registered in recent years. A separate review of companies identified as connected to the local Uzbek community found serious FMCSA safety violations, including drivers cited for failing English-proficiency requirements and other federal trucking violations.

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«This really concerns me, you know, as a father,» Nodawolf told Digital. «I mean, it’s clearly obvious that they either don’t understand our laws, they don’t care about our laws, or they know our laws and they’re taking advantage of it.»

Nodawolf has reported on Uzbek trucking networks communicating on the social media platform Telegram. One of those Telegram channels, named «UzbegimAmerica,» has routinely mentioned the Uzbek community in Maineville. Court documents show the owner of that channel, Farkhod Faiziev, is a suspected illegal immigrant from Uzbekistan.

The Trump administration has made significant progress on the issue of removing foreign truck drivers who pose a danger being removed from the road – including a recent multi-agency operation in Arizona’s Yuma Sector, which led to the arrest of 95 illegal alien truck drivers earlier this month – striking at the heart of human and drug smuggling operations at the U.S. southern border.

The Departments of Homeland Security, Transportation and Justice recently announced a coordinated crackdown on trucking and CDL fraud targeting fraudulent licensing, unauthorized employment, identity-document fraud, shell companies and other criminal activity. The effort includes inspections at more than 200 driving schools across 23 states, investigations based on more than 1,000 leads, enforcement operations targeting illegal immigrants with commercial licenses and a new multi-state DOJ task force focused on trucking-related fraud and roadway safety.

A trucking-industry veteran with decades of experience who spoke to Digital under the condition of anonymity for his safety described a developing fraud scheme popular with immigrant communities known as «chameleon carriers», a network of trucking companies that appear separate on paper but, he said, share the same drivers, trucks and operations. The arrangement starts when operators establish one company that is «quote-unquote legitimate,» he said, then create additional carriers and authorities while using the same underlying assets across them.

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The point, the industry expert said, is to «spread out their safety liability across multiple companies.» Rather than allowing inspections and violations to pile up under one carrier, he said, the operation can distribute them among multiple motor-carrier authorities.

«If they have 10 inspections and 10 violations across 10 different companies, that doesn’t hurt the safety rating as much,» he said. «But if it was one company that had 10 inspections and 10 violations, that one company is going to get hammered.»

The separate companies can also serve as a contingency plan, he said. If one carrier is shut down, loses insurance or becomes too damaged by safety problems, «they’re able to immediately move all of the equipment and drivers and everything under one of the different companies,» the industry veteran said. «Their operation never stops. There’s no way to shut them down.»

He further alleged the structure can facilitate cargo theft, with a company disappearing after obtaining a high-value shipment while the broader network continues operating through its remaining entities. «They lost one of their shell companies, basically, but they just got $5 million in iPads,» he said.

The industry expert said the model can be particularly dangerous, in his view, because it allows companies to keep operating despite safety problems while allegedly using drivers who may not be legally authorized to work in the United States. He said operators can make that harder to detect by classifying drivers as independent contractors rather than employees, potentially avoiding the ordinary employee I-9 verification process.

«If you’re using a bunch of people from a third-world country that just showed up in the United States as drivers, whether they’re here legally or not, how well do you think they’re going to maintain their equipment and be able to follow the laws?» he said.

Seven of the trucking schools targeted by the Department of Transportation last month are located in Ohio, DOT told last month.

A Notice of Proposed Removal was recently issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for Turan CDL School, a Middletown-based company that has advertised CDL training to Uzbek speakers, including advertisements suggesting students could obtain a CDL without first learning English, as well as Google reviews from customers claiming they earned their licenses in as little as one week.

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«There’s ‘what do the rules say’ and then ‘what’s happening on the ground,» Andrew Poliakoff, vice president of the Commercial Vehicle Training Association, told Fox 28 Columbus shortly after the crash that killed Forsythe. «We’re seeing now is that there are a lot of people committing fraud, and engaging in a variety of bad actions issuing commercial driver’s licenses.»

Victor Louis, whose Cincinnati based company Load Secure verifies the identities of drivers entering its network, told Digital that he has seen local advertisements promising prospective truckers a CDL in as little as a week immediately raise red flags.

«Trucking is such an inherently dangerous activity. Essentially, you’re driving a 40-ton missile down the road,» Louis said. «To think that someone is going to be certified to do that within a week, that may or may not speak English, like that doesn’t make any sense.»

Louis said his company is also seeing a significant number of non-domiciled drivers, foreign drivers who hold commercial licenses issued by a U.S. state despite not having their permanent residence in that state. He said roughly 15% to 20% of drivers entering Load Secure’s network fall into that category and estimated the figure could be around 20% among long-haul truckers nationwide.

«Whether they’re here legally or not, I don’t know, but they are essentially foreign nationals,» Louis said. He argued that long-haul trucking can be particularly attractive to migrants because drivers can spend weeks at a time living on the road rather than maintaining a permanent home near their workplace.

Louis said cargo theft and the security of the broader supply chain are among his biggest concerns.

«What we see with that market of non-domiciled drivers is a high propensity of cargo theft, an extremely high propensity,» he said. «It’s wreaking havoc on our supply chain. Number one, it’s extremely dangerous and number two, it is very unsecure. We don’t know if things are being tampered with. This exposes our supply chains.»

The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles told Digital that it is reviewing the state’s nondomiciled commercial driver’s license holders in coordination with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Of the roughly 5,000 nondomiciled credentials originally issued, about 3,500 remain active, meaning approximately 1,500 are no longer active as the review continues.

On Sept. 16, reported that ICE arrested two Uzbek illegal alien truck drivers in New Jersey as part of nationwide crackdown on fraudulent CDLs.

«We are starting to go into those thousand leads of fraud, waste and abuse into our trucking industry,» Mullin said in a press conference last month. «We’re going to prioritize going after employees that are suspected of accepting payments to help illegals bypass driver’s license and CDL requirements.»

In Brown County, Ohio, on Sept. 2, an Indian national with a CDL out of California crashed his semi-truck head-on into the car of 50-year-old Brenda Watson, who died at the scene. The driver, Manjit Singh , was later determined to be an illegal immigrant and ICE announced in a press release that a detainer was placed along with a charge of aggravated vehicular homicide.

«One state’s regulatory failure becomes every state’s highway threat,» Ohio attorney Mehek Cooke told News Digital. «Republican governors cannot assume their states were insulated from Biden’s border crisis simply because they opposed his policies.»

Digital reached out to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s office for comment.

Last month, ICE launched a tip-line for reporting fraudulent CDL licenses.

«Too many American lives have been lost or permanently changed because illegal aliens who have no business being on our roads have been granted CDLs,» Mullin said in a press release. «ICE and our federal partners, including the Department of Transportation, will be cracking down on CDL fraud so that not one more American life is lost to a reckless illegal alien behind the wheel of a semi-truck.»

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Before raising millions of campaign dollars for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris or breaking ranks with the Democratic Party to publish a tell-all political memoir, Lindy Li was trying to build a political career from the candidate’s podium.

«I just knew,» Li said.

«I knew that I was supposed to run for Congress. But I didn’t know I was supposed to do it at twenty-four years old.»

In the lead-up to the 2024 election, that ambition crashed headlong into lifelong convictions about loyalty and stretched them to a breaking point. Li’s status as a top Democratic fundraiser would soon crumble as she switched her party affiliation over unheeded warning signs about President Joe Biden’s decline in the 2024 election. 

That break has left her uncertain about her future but hasn’t stopped her from thinking about what could come next.

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«President Rubio calls me in two years, four years, then there’s an open seat in Pennsylvania for whatever reason,» Li said, ruminating about her future.

«You know, I could solidify my hand on a hundred million dollars. I think few people could do a better job, and I’m sorry if that sounds conceited. And I’m not saying I want it; I’m just saying if it falls into my lap, then sure, but who knows?»

Li’s family initially came to the United States from China, fleeing persecution from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which Li said had killed her great-grandfather. After growing up briefly in Sheffield, England, Li joined her parents in New England at the age of 5.

She recounted how her family moved from Boston to New Haven to Pennsylvania as her father worked as a doctor.

From her parents, Li said, she inherited a sense of work ethic that enabled her to fuel her sense of political destiny. At Princeton, Li used that work ethic to become the only female class president to hold the office for four consecutive years.

«I used to go around with candy and just be like, ‘Can you please vote for me? This is what I intend to do. I want to expand late meals and offer sushi,’ whatever the platform was. I was tenacious; nobody could outwork me,» Li said.

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The «plan,» Li said, was to become a senator.

But that wasn’t supposed to happen for another ten years when, in 2012, a school shooter attacked Sandy Hook Elementary School, killing 20 children. Li recalled how the attack accelerated her convictions to enter public life and prompted her to leave a budding career in finance.

«I just felt it in my heart that I was supposed to help do whatever I could to save those kids,» Li said.

Despite conservative leanings, Li ran twice as a Democrat, never advancing past the primary stage. But her fundraising caught the attention of Democratic strategists. In 2016, she raised nearly $515,000 and in 2018 another $168,000.

«I didn’t intend to become a fundraiser,» Li recalled. «It’s a lot of salesmanship, and I hated it. I hate it. And I also know I’m very good at it. This is not me bragging; I just know.

«They came to my home. I remember. The executive director showed up to my home to recruit me for this. It was like Scientology. He noticed — I mean, everybody noticed that as a kid I basically raised $700,000. I just caught the eye of party leadership.»

Alongside her aspirations, Li said she also cultivated a sense of loyalty, a quality she said has been a key part of her character since she can remember.

«Like if somebody’s kind to me, I will go to the ends of the earth for them. And it always surprises me and I shouldn’t be surprised when someone doesn’t reciprocate because that’s just how I operate. You have to give me a reason to walk away from you. If you have my loyalty, there’s very little I wouldn’t do for you,» Li said.

That loyalty, combined with her fundraising prowess, led Li to climb swiftly, rubbing shoulders with some of the party’s top operatives. During the Biden and Harris campaigns, Li communicated with figures like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., many of whom she built personal relationships with.

But that loyalty reached a tipping point in 2024 when, as a fundraiser, Li saw the party selling donors and voters on the idea that President Joe Biden could serve effectively as president for another four years despite mounting concerns about his cognitive abilities.

In recent months, Li has published a book, «Unburdened,» documenting the party’s internal deliberations about Biden’s age and how, according to her, many of them knowingly understood the political liabilities that came with his age.

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That book and the warpath to writing it have severed virtually all of her relationships from when she was a Democrat. As she documented in her book, it even cost her a personal romantic relationship of eight years.

To an extent, Li understood the price tag that came with her decision to go public with her insider knowledge.

She suspects some of the people she left behind understand that price, too.

«If Josh Shapiro ever walks into the room, I know we’re gonna understand each other, I know. Like despite everything that’s happened. I think he’s going to understand. I understand why he needed to throw me, you know, to the wolves.

«I never would have done that to him, though.»

Li still holds fast to the idea of loyalty as a matter of personal conviction. But regardless of where her ambitions take her next, she believes she will have to temper them with honesty that makes few allowances for party narratives.

«I think I would describe my worldview as realpolitik with Lindy characteristics,» Li said.

«I’m no longer going to half-heartedly support anybody. I learned my lesson about Biden and Harris. So I’m just waiting.»

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Newly uncovered documents reveal that one of former special counsel Jack Smith’s top deputies advocated for repealing a key constitutional protection for lawmakers.

«I’m an advocate for repealing the clause but absent that, we’re stuck with it and the way it’s been interpreted,» J.P. Cooney, who served as Smith’s principal deputy prosecutor, wrote in a 2021 exchange first obtained by the Washington Examiner. He was speaking with Molly Gaston, another prosecutor who would go on to join Smith, about the Constitution’s speech or debate clause.

The speech or debate clause of the Constitution protects members of Congress from civil or criminal prosecution stemming from their legislative actions or speech. In theory, it shields the legislative branch from being coerced by the executive branch under threat of prosecution.

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«Records provided to my office revealed that Jack Smith’s right-hand man, J.P. Cooney, flaunted his disdain for the speech or debate clause, which protects the separation of powers,» Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told Digital.  

«Later, Cooney and Smith violated this constitutional safeguard by secretly obtaining toll records and text messages from dozens of members of Congress.»

«Jack Smith and his team disgracefully tore up the Constitution throughout his partisan investigation. That’s what happens when runaway Democrat government is in power,» Grassley added. 

Smith and his staff were responsible for investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Cooney’s position on the speech or debate clause was a point of contention during Smith’s Tuesday hearing on Capitol Hill.

«When you became special counsel, what direction did you give your staff to handle speech or debate and attorney-client material? Did you issue any directives? If so, to whom? Please explain,» Grassley asked Smith, citing Cooney’s support for repealing the clause.

«So, with respect to the speech or debate clause, first, we took our obligations seriously under the speech or debate clause. It’s, in my view, an important part of the separation of powers,» Smith responded. 

«I had members of my staff who were very familiar with the clause, having worked in the public integrity section for years. We also, when it was appropriate or required, consulted with the public integrity section regarding application of that clause.»

Grassley dismissed Smith’s defense by arguing that the behavior of his staff contradicted his statement.

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Republicans have argued Cooney’s views foreshadowed Smith’s later use of subpoenas for lawmakers’ communication records. 

Smith’s team obtained and reviewed communications involving dozens of lawmakers, while separate subpoenas sought telephone records associated with a smaller group of members of Congress. 

Among the lawmakers whose messages with White House personnel were obtained and reviewed were senators Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; Ron Johnson, R-Wis.; John Cornyn, R-Texas; Josh Hawley, R-Mo.; Mike Lee, R-Utah; Cory Booker, D-N.J.; and the late Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

«In 2023, Cooney, Gaston, Windom and Ray Hulser were given warnings that subpoenaing congressional information could violate the speech or debate clause,» Grassley previously said.

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Cooney complained about statutory restrictions surrounding efforts to obtain lawmakers’ telephone records during a separate 2021 investigation, at one point calling the language «ridiculous,» according to previously released messages.

When asked about Cooney’s position on the speech or debate clause, Democracy Forward, the advocacy organization where he now works, referred Digital to a press release announcing its hiring of both him and Gaston.

Cooney and Gaston said in the release that they had spent years «holding the most powerful accountable for public corruption and civil rights abuses» and said they joined Democracy Forward amid what they characterized as the Trump administration’s «de-prioritization» of public corruption enforcement.

While Republicans have characterized Smith’s investigation as a political witch hunt, he maintains that he acted impartially and in the best interests of the United States.

Proponents argue that Smith’s investigation was necessary because the allegations involved conduct at the core of constitutional government, including efforts to overturn the 2020 election and obstruct the lawful transfer of power, as well as the retention and alleged concealment of highly classified documents on part of President Donald Trump.

Digital reached out to Gaston & Cooney PLLC Wednesday.

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