BROOKLYN, N.Y. (PIX11) -- Two Brooklyn moving company employees were convicted on Monday of withholding their customer's belongings and charging exorbitant illegal fees, officials said.
Kristy Mak, 34, and Andre Prince, 45, were both charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and they can face up to 20 years in prison.
“The jury found that these defendants conspired in a despicable scheme to steal from their victims when they were most vulnerable and at the mercy of crooked movers holding their worldly possessions hostage," said United States Attorney Breon Peace.
The scam occurred from January 2017 to August 2020 and was conducted by employees of several moving companies controlled by Yakov Moroz. These companies, include Great Moving USA, Green Movers, New City Moves, Cross Country Moving and Storage, and Movers Consulting, officials said.
Mak worked as a customer service representative and supervised Prince, who was a part of the sales team.
The sales associate would post fake online reviews and the company would offer low-cost transportation of customer's items. However after the contract was signed, the movers would spring new expenses on them.
If the customer tried to reach out and ask about the surprise fees, the sales associate would be unavailable. Drivers would then threaten to hold their goods "hostage unless they paid these additional fees, often double or triple the original cost," prosecutors said.
The scheme illegally obtained more than $3 million from over 800 victims, prosecutors said.
“Make no mistake, this was not a disagreement over billing, rather the jury found the defendants were part of a cunning and deliberate scheme to defraud customers and were held accountable," said Peace.
Charline Charles is a digital journalist from Brooklyn who has covered local news along with culture and arts in the New York City area since 2019. She joined PIX11 News in 2022. See more of her work here.
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