US District Court Judge Jesse M Furman for the Southern District of New York has sentenced Robert Schirmer, a former Polar Air Cargo (PO, New York JFK) senior executive, to 18 months in prison for his role in a scheme to defraud the cargo carrier of tens of millions of dollars in revenue.
Schirmer, who acted as the company's senior director of customer service and capacity in the Americas, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and honest services fraud before Furman in October 2023. Bloomberg reported that his year-and-a-half-long prison sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release.
He is also bound to make restitution to Polar in the amount of USD9.34 million and agreed last year to pay forfeiture of USD983,759.32.
Ten suspects were charged in 2023 in relation to the decade-long fraud scheme that cost Polar Air Cargo, a Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings subsidiary, an estimated USD52 million in lost revenue. Former executive vice president and chief operating officer Lars Winkelbauer was sentenced to four years in prison earlier this year.
According to the United States Department of Justice, between 2009 and July 2021, the ten individuals agreed to accept millions of dollars in kickbacks from vendors in exchange for ensuring they received favourable business arrangements with Polar.
Other co-defendants in the case included Abilash Kurien, former VP of marketing, revenue management, and network planning, and Carlton Llewellyn, former VP of operations, systems performance, and quality. The latter pled guilty in January 2024. The vendors were Skye Xu, Benjamin Wei, Alvaro Lopez, Fabiola Cino, Orlando Wong, and Patrick Lau.
The Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings subsidiary operates a fleet of six aircraft - four B747-8Fs and two B777-200Fs.
