NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – An employee of a Brooklyn moving company was sentenced on Thursday for defrauding customers, overcharging more than $3 million from over 800 victims, prosecutors announced.
Andre Prince, 45, was sentenced to 24 months in prison for his participation in a fraudulent moving company scheme after being convicted last year of committing wire fraud following a one-week trial.
“The defendant enticed victims to use the moving companies he worked for and then held their belongings hostage to substantially higher prices and the threat of auctioning them off unless they agreed to the fraudulent demands,” Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York said.
The scheme, operating from January 2017 to August 2020, was orchestrated by employees of several moving companies controlled by Yakov Moroz, who is currently a fugitive. These companies, including Great Moving USA, Green Movers, New City Moves, Cross Country Moving and Storage, and Movers Consulting, operated under various names.
Co-worker Kristy Mak worked as a customer service representative for the company and supervised Prince, who worked on the sales team.
They attracted customers using fake online reviews and low-cost moving offers, investigations revealed. However, after a contract was signed or, in some cases, customers' belongings loaded onto trucks, unexpected and exorbitant fees were imposed.
Once confronted with the unexpected fees, customers would be unable to reach the sales associates. Drivers would then threaten to hold the customers' goods hostage unless they paid these additional fees, often double or triple the original estimate, prosecutors said.
The investigation revealed Slack messages where Prince responded to two memes sent by another salesperson about their scheme to cut off contact with customers on moving day, stating, “[rolling on the floor laughing emoji] that is so accurate.”
Mak, who was convicted at trial of the same wire fraud conspiracy charge as Prince, is awaiting sentencing.
Prince was also ordered to pay forfeiture in the amount of $100,000.