Four brothers from the Hudson Valley are accused of all participating in a scheme to systematically defraud Amazon.com of millions.
“Throughout the course of the scheme, they manipulated Amazon’s vendor system in an attempt to fraudulently encourage Amazon to pay for goods that Amazon had not ordered,” said Audrey Strauss, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
In implementing the scheme, they fraudulently sought to obtain at least about $ 32 million and successfully obtain about $ 19 million, Strauss said.
The four are:
- Yoel Abraham, 28, of Suffern,
- Heshl Abraham, 32, of Spring Valley,
- Zishe Abraham, 30, of Spring Valley,
- and Shmuel Abraham, 24, of Airmont
“The indictment alleges that Yoel, Heshl, Zishe and Shmuel Abraham came up with a new twist on an old trick, but the use of complex technology did not hide the simple fact that the suspects allowed Amazon for goods they never delivered,” Strauss said. “The more our economic life moves online, the more we need to ensure the integrity of our digital markets, which keeps my Office engaged.”
According to the Indictment unsafe in federal court in Manhattan:
- The four, who serve purely land-based companies, opened vendor accounts at Amazon to sell the company small quantities of goods.
- By accepting an order, they have agreed to deliver specific goods, at specific prices, in specific quantities.
- Instead, they manipulated Amazon’s vendor system, and billed, in the most restless iteration of the scheme, the company for replacement goods at gross inflated prices and overpayments.
- They often shipped and billed for more than 10,000 units of an item when Amazon had requested less than 100, and agreed to ship.
The court documents said the brothers communicated about the scheme, extended help and advice to each other, and helped each other evade the discovery using an encrypted group text chain on WhatsApp, a messaging application.
For example, on May 1, 2018, Strauss told Yoel Abraham, the suspect, to the group “I’m so in the mood to (expletively remove) Amazon,” and asked “Has anyone tried to review and make a million profit in a week? ”
Once Amazon discovered the pattern of fraudulent overwriting, it stopped the delivery accounts that were involved in the fraud.
In response, the brothers tried to open other vendor accounts and disguise their identities by registering with fake names, using multiple email addresses, and using virtual private servers (“VPSs”) to connect to previously locked accounts. concealment and the ability of Amazon to frustrate detect and limit its fraudulent activity, Strauss said.
The four were each accused of:
- conspiracy to commit wire fraud,
- wire fraud,
- and money laundering.
Wire fraud and wire-fraud conspiracy carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and money laundering carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Strauss praised the work of the Homeland Security Department, Homeland Security Investigation, the New York Police Department, US Customs and Border Protection Department, the Rockland County Sheriff’s Department, and the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, and thanked Amazon for its collaboration with the research.
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