Freight broker alleges customer theft, kickbacks in lawsuit against rival

Edge Logistics has sued rival freight broker Freight Tec Management Group and four former employees, alleging they diverted customers through a scheme involving confidential information and kickbacks funded by inflated freight charges. The 51-page federal complaint, filed Sept. 30 in the U. S.

District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleges that the employees secretly established competing businesses while still working for Edge Logistics and arranged to transfer customer accounts to Utah-based Freight Tec before resigning. Edge alleges its expedited-freight division declined 66.

4% within weeks of the employees’ departures in May 2026, while the rest of its business grew 8. 5%. The lawsuit does not specify whether those figures measure revenue, shipment volume or another metric, nor does it identify the precise comparison period. The lawsuit names Freight Tec Management Group Inc.

, former Edge employees Nicholas Daglas, John Harlan, Andre Apiquian and Alexis Hersh, and three companies allegedly established to operate as Freight Tec brokerage agents: Parlay Expedited LLC, Thorndale Logistics LLC and Freight Redefined LLC.

Todd Rowden, a partner at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP representing the four former employees and three related LLCs, disputed the allegations. “My clients dispute plaintiff’s allegations, and the legal sufficiency of its claims, and have no further comment regarding the complaint,” Rowden said in an emailed statement to FreightWaves.

Freight Tec did not provide a substantive response to FreightWaves’ requests for comment before publication.

Lawsuit alleges employees planned departures while still on payroll According to the complaint, the four employees worked in Edge’s expedited-freight division, arranging urgent and time-sensitive shipments using straight trucks, box trucks, cargo vans and other equipment. Edge Logistics, headquartered in Chicago, was founded in 2014.

The logistics provider has around 120 employees, according to Built In Chicago. Bountiful, Utah-based Freight Tec Management Group is a privately held freight brokerage founded in 1997. The company provides truckload, less-than-truckload and expedited freight services through a network of independent freight agents.

Freight Tec has between 51 and 200 employees, according to LinkedIn. Edge alleges the employees had access to confidential customer information, including shipping rates, pricing strategies, freight lanes, customer preferences and business relationships.

Rather than leave Edge and independently establish competing businesses, the employees allegedly worked with Freight Tec to develop a plan to transfer existing Edge accounts to the rival brokerage.

The lawsuit alleges that Freight Tec’s leadership knew the employees were subject to restrictive employment agreements and reviewed those agreements before engaging them.

Edge claims in court filings that Freight Tec’s CEO met with Daglas approximately three to five times before the employees departed to discuss their agreements, paperwork and the legality of their planned business arrangements.

The employees allegedly agreed to operate through independent agency businesses under Freight Tec’s brokerage authority, receiving a share of gross profits generated by the customers they brought to the company.

Three of the defendants established limited liability companies in April, according to the complaint: Apiquian registered Freight Redefined LLC in Florida on April 20. Harlan registered Thorndale Logistics LLC in Illinois on April 22. Daglas registered Parlay Expedited LLC in Illinois on April 23.

Edge alleges all three companies were established while their owners were still employed by the brokerage. The complaint further alleges the employees staggered their resignations to conceal the coordinated nature of their departure.

Daglas submitted his resignation May 8, telling Edge he was stepping away from the freight industry to focus on family, according to the lawsuit. Harlan allegedly told colleagues he was leaving to work for a friend in Las Vegas, while Apiquian said he wanted a local, office-based position.

Edge claims those explanations concealed plans to continue working in freight brokerage through Freight Tec. Customer emails allegedly established before departures Among the lawsuit’s most detailed allegations are descriptions of customer-specific Freight Tec email accounts appearing in Edge shipment communications before the employees left the company.

On May 9, while Daglas and Hersh were still employed by Edge, an email account associated with Freight Tec and dedicated to an Edge customer identified as Customer A appeared in a shipment-related email thread, according to the complaint.

Five days later, on May 14, a second Freight Tec email account dedicated to Customer B appeared in a rate-request thread involving Daglas and Harlan’s Edge email addresses. Edge contends those communications demonstrate that the defendants were preparing to serv