A Newport Beach man who owns several Inland Empire-based trucking companies was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison for ordering a welder to illegally repair a tanker, resulting in an explosion that killed the worker.
The sentencing marked the second time that Carl Bradley Johansson was found criminally liable for the death of one of his welders. Johansson, now 64, was also sentenced Tuesday for tax evasion and fraudulently obtaining nearly $1 million in COVID-relief money while out on bond in the tanker expulsion case, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office statement.
Johansson, now 64, pleaded guilty last year to multiple felony counts in connection to the fatal tank explosion, tax evasion and the relief money scam. Along with the decade-long prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips ordered Johansson to pay approximately $1.25 million in restitution to two banks and the IRS.
An earlier tanker explosion that led to the death of a worker in 1993 resulted in Johansson being sentenced to 15 months in federal prison.
Prosecutors allege that after his release from prison, Johansson created a Corona-based trucking company called National Distribution Services in order to “illegally operate cargo tanks,” despite two more “welding-caused explosions” in 2012 and 2014.
On May 6, 2014, prosecutors say the trucking company’s management ordered workers to carry out welding work on a tanker that still had crude oil inside of it that hadn’t been fully cleaned out. The resulting explosion killed one welder and severely injured a second employee.
Prosecutors allege that over the next four years Johansson and other trucking company employees repeatedly attempted to impede a federal investigation into the fatal explosion. Johansson and the employees were trying to hide the facts that the company was making illegal welding repairs, that Johansson still owned the companies despite his earlier conviction and that the dead and injured welders worked for Johansson, prosecutors said.
On the day of the actual explosion, Johansson reportedly told investigators that he was a customer service representative for another company, and falsely claimed that the welders caught in the blast were working for an outside tank-repair company.
Later, in an effort to lift a federal ruling known as a “out-of-service order” — barring his company from operating several dozen cargo tanks that hauled gasoline or ethanol — Johansson reportedly lied under oath in a sworn statement in which he claimed his company had never engaged in tank repairs. To get around the out-of-service order and evade regulators, Johansson began operating under a new company name — Wholesale Distribution — with the same employees and management out of the same warehouse.
At the same time, prosecutors say Johansson failed to report more than $1 million in income from the trucking companies in order to avoid paying nearly $300,000 in federal income taxes over a six-year span. He reportedly used that money on personal expenses, including renting a home in Corona and paying tuition payments at his children’s private high schools and universities.
After he was charged in connection to the explosion case, Johansson was released on bond.
While he awaited trial, prosecutors say Johansson directed another trucking company he owned — Western Distribution in Ontario — to apply for a Paycheck Protection Program loan, as part of the federal government’s effort to help businesses keep employee’s on staff during the coronavirus pandemic.
Johansson had Western Distribution immediately spend the PPP loans, while the company’s employees were laid off then eventually rehired. Federal prosecutors estimate that Johansson was responsible for nearly $1 million worth of fraud related to the COVID-relief funds.
Judge Phillips on Tuesday also placed two of Johansson’s companies — National Distribution Services and Wholesale Distribution — on probation and ordered them to pay more than $650,000 in restitution.
Some of Johansson’s employees previously accepted plea deals.
Enrique Garcia, 48, of Pomona, who served as Johansson’s shop manager, admitted to welding without required certifications and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison.
Donald Cameron Spicer, 71, of Fullerton, who served as Johansson’s safety manager, has pleaded guilty to making illegal repairs on the cargo tanks and defrauding the government and is awaiting sentencing.
