Prosecutors are citing a series of profane and derogatory WhatsApp messages as evidence against four brothers charged with defrauding Amazon of at least $19 million by abusing the Seattle tech company’s vendor ordering and payment system.
“I’m so in the mood to f**k Amazon,” read one of the messages, sent by Yoel Abraham in May 2018, according to a press release about the indictment, handed down Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. “Did anyone try to overship and make a million profit in a week?”
The indictment describes the thread as encrypted, without disclosing how it was obtained by investigators. We’ve contacted the U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of New York for more information. WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, offers end-to-end encryption as one of its signature feature.
Amazon points to its participation in and support of the investigation as an example of the steps it’s taking to weed out fraudulent activity on Amazon.com. The company faced larger questions about the actions of fraudsters and counterfeiters on its platform in a recent antitrust hearing, despite a range of efforts by the company to crack down on such illicit activity.
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“Amazon is grateful to have worked with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the Department of Homeland Security, and Homeland Security Investigations on their vigorous prosecution of these individuals,“ said Cristina Posa, Associate General Counsel and Director of the Amazon Counterfeit Crimes Unit, in a statement.
Posa added, “While our proactive controls ensure the vast majority of sellers in our store are honest entrepreneurs, fraudsters attempt to violate our policies, victimize our customers, and damage our store, and we look forward to working with law enforcement agencies to hold these bad actors accountable for their illegal activities.”
According to the indictment, which refers to Amazon as “Online Retailer-1,” the brothers opened a variety of vendor accounts with Amazon and accepted purchase orders to supply small quantities of products.
“Instead of supplying the requested goods, the defendants manipulated Online Retailer-1’s invoicing systems and billing procedures using a practice known as ‘overshipping,’ ” the indictment alleges. “The defendants shipped, invoiced and received payment for goods that Online Retailer-1 had not agreed to purchase, or for prices and quantities to which Online Retailer-1 had not agreed.”
After the company suspended their accounts, the indictment alleges, the brothers opened new accounts using fake names, new email accounts and VPNs to hide their identities. Prosecutors allege that the brothers attempted to obtain at least $32 million in this way, and ended up successfully obtaining at least $19 million.
Named in the indictment are Yoel Abraham, 28, of Suffern, N.Y., Heshl Abraham, 32, of Spring Valley, N.Y.; Zishe Abraham, 30, of Spring Valley; and Shmuel Abraham, 24, of Airmont, N.Y., each charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. The maximum sentence for wire fraud is 20 years in prison, and the maximum for money laundering is 10 years under federal sentencing guidelines.
