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November 30, 1999 9:48 AM, EST

Some of the trucking companies doing business with Australian middleman Peter Ruston say his federal indictment on visa fraud, alien smuggling and money laundering charges have severely set back the cause of hiring foreign drivers.

Arkansas-based B&D Transport and Harold Ives Trucking both did business with Ruston, who approached them in the mid-1990s with an offer they couldn’t refuse: He would recruit Australian and New Zealander drivers and get them work visas to enter this country. All the companies had to do was put them to work. In a driver-starved industry, Ruston had many companies salivating.

“Overall, the dealings I had with Peter seemed to be above-board,” says Bill Dalton, president of B&D Transport in Benton, Ark. “What happened to Peter is, I think, he went a little too far. He was using people who didn’t have the proper credentials to be working.”

Ruston is currently jailed in Little Rock, Ark., awaiting trial, which is scheduled to start Dec. 6. U.S. Attorney Paula Casey and the Immigration and Naturalization Service would like him to stay there because, they say, he is a flight risk.

For the full story, see the Nov. 29 print edition of Transport Topics. .