$139,000 Federal Judgment. They Didn't Show Up. They Didn't Pay. They Opened a New Company.

In the spring of 2022, Michael Poticny and his family decided to move from Sherwood, Oregon to Pennsylvania. He received a binding estimate of $26,536.58. The broker connected him with Movers and Packers Relocation Specialists LLC, a New Jersey limited liability company that agreed to transport the household goods for that price.

What happened next generated a federal lawsuit, a default judgment of $139,503.91, and zero dollars recovered. The company that owed the judgment simply ceased to exist. Its operators opened new companies under new names. The legal system worked perfectly. The outcome was nothing.

On August 23, 2022, Poticny filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon (Case 3:2022cv01243) under 49 U.S.C. 14706, the Carmack Amendment, which governs carrier liability for interstate household goods.

Movers and Packers Relocation Specialists LLC did not respond. It did not file an answer. It did not appear. It did not send an attorney.

On October 6, 2022, the Clerk entered the default. On December 30, 2022, the Court granted a default judgment: $119,784 in damages and $19,719.91 in attorney fees and costs. Total: $139,503.91.

The consumer won. In federal court. Under federal law. With a six-figure judgment. And it meant nothing.

A postscript: in April 2025, a public notice in the Polk County Itemizer Observer listed Shadi Qarmout, an operator of the Movers and Packers network, as an occupant in default at a self-storage facility in Salem, Oregon, approximately 30 miles from Sherwood where the Poticny move originated. Two storage units full of property were scheduled for public auction. A source reports approximately three such auction notices listing Qarmout. The belongings that Poticny paid $26,536 to ship may have been sitting in a storage unit in the same region, abandoned by the operator who never appeared in court.

A judgment is only as good as the assets behind it. Movers and Packers Relocation Specialists LLC (DOT 3539058) was a New Jersey LLC registered at 85 Wagaraw Road, Hawthorne, NJ 07506. It operated with minimal assets. No significant fleet. No real property in the company name. No bond beyond the $75,000 federal minimum for brokers or the $5,000 minimum cargo coverage for carriers.

When a consumer wins a $139,000 judgment against an LLC with no assets, the judgment sits on paper. The consumer can attempt to garnish bank accounts, but the accounts may be empty or closed. The consumer can attempt to levy business property, but there may be none. The consumer can attempt to pierce the corporate veil to reach the individual operators, but that requires additional litigation, additional attorney fees, and proof that the operators commingled personal and business assets.

The operators of Movers and Packers did not need to hide from the judgment. They simply moved on.

Movers and Packers Relocation Specialists LLC was operated by Jennifer Tattoli (also known as Jennifer Dehaas) and Shadi Qarmout. John Neylan served as the frontline business manager, dispatcher, and primary operational contact.

After Movers and Packers, the operators cycled through multiple company names:

PackRite Movers (DOT 3218307, Paterson NJ): Now INACTIVE in the FMCSA database. BBB complaints describe cash-only operations and settlements of $9 for $1,000+ losses.

Lucrative Van Lines LLC (DOT 3999967, Clifton NJ): Authorized for household goods.

Easy Moving LLC (DOT 4096541, Charlotte NC): No active authority.

Frontier Moving Solutions LLC (DOT 4354217, Fort Lauderdale FL): No active authority. Same address as USA Moving Group LLC (DOT 4515840).

Top Moving Solutions (topmovingsolutions.com): Linked to Tattoli per consumer watchdog reports and BBB complaints.

John and Sons Moving (DOT 2049684, Williamstown NJ): Operated by Neylan, registered under the name Cleaster Bethea. NOT AUTHORIZED for interstate operations.

Each new company started with zero complaints. Each new company was invisible to consumers searching for the prior company's record. The $139,000 judgment against Movers and Packers does not appear on any of these successor entities. A consumer hiring Frontier Moving Solutions in Fort Lauderdale has no way to know that its operator owes $139,000 to a consumer in Oregon for the same type of fraud.

FMCSA has a regulation designed for exactly this scenario. 49 CFR 386.73 authorizes record consolidation orders for reincarnated carriers. When FMCSA determines that a new entity has 'substantial continuity' with a predecessor, it can merge the records, so the new company's profile shows the old company's complaints, enforcement history, and judgments.

The criteria for substantial continuity include: common ownership, shared management, same facilities, common employees, and similar operational scope. The Movers and Packers to PackRite to Lucrative to Frontier chain meets every criterion. Same people. Same tactics. Same broker relationships. Different names on the paperwork.

FMCSA has never issued a record consolidation order for any entity in this chain. The $139,000 judgment, the 14 known aliases, the documented consumer fraud pattern, the active federal investigation (Tattoli reportedly offered to cooperate with the FBI against Qarmout and was turned down because the FBI wants both of them): none of it has triggered the use of a tool that has been available since 2012.

The Poticny case is a controlled experiment in why lawsuits alone do not stop moving fraud.

The consumer did everything right. He hired an attorney. He filed in federal court. He cited the correct statute. He won. He was awarded $139,503.91. And the operators of the company that defrauded him are currently recruiting drivers on Facebook, operating under new company names, and accumulating new complaints from new consumers.

Media coverage alone does not stop fraud. Our data shows complaints continued or accelerated for every company that received media attention without simultaneous enforcement action. The one exception, Gold Standard, stopped only after the Florida AG intervened.

Lawsuits alone do not stop fraud. The Poticny judgment demonstrates this. A consumer can win in federal court and still lose, because the judgment is against an LLC that dissolves and reincorporates before the ink dries.

What stops fraud is enforcement that follows the people, not just the company name. Attorney general actions that name individual operators. FMCSA record consolidation orders that merge successor records. Criminal prosecution that results in personal liability, not just corporate liability.

The legal system gave Michael Poticny a $139,000 piece of paper. The regulatory system gave Jennifer Tattoli and John Neylan a fresh DOT number.