OC man who owned trucking companies gets 10 Years in fatal tanker blast

The owner of several Inland Empire-based trucking companies was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in federal prison for ordering the illegal repair of a tanker that resulted in an explosion and the death of one his employees — the second time one of his welders was killed.

Carl Bradley Johansson, 64, of Newport Beach, was also sentenced for tax evasion and fraudulently obtaining about $954,417 in COVID-19 relief money while free on bond in the tanker explosion case, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips also ordered Johansson to pay $1.25 million in restitution to two banks and the IRS.

Johansson pleaded guilty in September 2021 to two felony counts in relation to the tank explosion — one count of conspiring to make illegal repairs on the cargo tanks and to defraud the U.S. Department of Transportation, and one count of welding without required certifications.

He also pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court to one count each of tax evasion, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and bank fraud. Johansson admitted that he committed the bank fraud offenses stemming from the Paycheck Protection Program scam while he was on pretrial release in the tanker explosion case. He has been in federal custody since his arrest on the PPP charges in July 2021.

Johansson controlled and operated two Corona-based trucking companies – – National Distribution Services, which operated from about 2009 through 2015, and NDSI’s successor company, Wholesale Distribution Incorporated, which did business as Quality Services.

He established NDSI following a 15-month federal prison sentence he served after one of his welders was killed in another tanker explosion in 1993. Johansson created WDI to take over NDSI’s operations so he could continue to illegally operate cargo tanks that were ordered out of service after two more welding-caused explosions in 2012 and 2014.

On May 6, 2014, NDSI management ordered workers to do welding work on a tanker that had not been fully cleaned of the crude oil inside of it. This resulted in an explosion that killed a company welder and severely injured a second worker.

For the next four years, Johansson and other employees of NDSI and WDI conspired to obstruct a federal investigation into the explosion by making multiple false statements to local, state and federal officials to conceal that NDSI had conducted illegal welding repairs, that Johansson controlled NDSI and WDI, and that the deceased and injured employees worked for him.

For example, on the day of the fatal explosion, when investigators arrived at NDSI, Johansson identified himself as being a customer service representative with another company and said the welders were employed by an outside tank-repair company.

As part of the conspiracy and to further conceal his control of NDSI and WDI, Johansson did not file income tax returns for the years 2012 through 2017. He failed to report at least $1.17 million in income from the trucking companies, using that income to pay for personal expenses — including renting a large home in Corona for at least $12,000 per month and using company accounts to make $200,000 in tuition payments at his children’s private high schools and universities.

In April 2020, while free on bond in the explosion case, Johansson directed another trucking company he controlled, the Ontario-based Western Distribution, to apply for a $436,390 PPP loan. After the loan was funded, Johansson directed Western Distribution in May and June of 2020 to immediately spend the PPP funds. Rather than use the funds to keep the company’s employees on staff, Johansson laid off most of the workers, but rehired many of them later that year.

At the sentencing hearing, the judge also sentenced NDSI and WDI to one year of probation.

Enrique Garcia, 48, of Pomona, Johansson’s shop manager and co- defendant, pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of welding without required certifications and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison.

Donald Cameron Spicer, 71, of Fullerton, Johansson’s safety manager and co-defendant, pleaded guilty to conspiring to make illegal repairs on the cargo tanks and to defraud the DOT. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 6.

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