A sales rep from a shady Brooklyn moving company will move into a prison cell after a judge sentenced him Wednesday to two years for a scheme to hold customers’ belongings hostage unless they paid last-minute, illegal fees.
Andre Prince, 45, of Florida, won’t need a moving truck to transfer his belongings when he reports to federal prison by his Feb. 15 surrender date.
A jury in Brooklyn Federal Court convicted Prince and co-worker Kristy Mak of wire fraud conspiracy in December, finding them guilty in a cruel scheme to trick some 800 customers out of a total $3 million. Mak still awaits sentencing.
The scam targeted people looking for reliable, low-cost moving companies, using business names like “Great Movers,” New City Movers” and “American Choice Van Lines,” and changing names and addresses to stay one step ahead of customer complaints and bad online reviews.
Prince used a fake name when he called would-be customers and offered cheap estimates.
But once these movers from hell loaded up the moving trucks, all bets were off — and Prince suddenly couldn’t be reached by phone.
The prices skyrocketed with bogus overweight charges and “shuttle fees,” and the company threatened to sell customers’ belongings at auction if they didn’t pay up.
One victim testified at trial that he got an estimate of $2,425, but the movers didn’t even pick up all of his belongings, then hit him with another nearly $4,300 in fees.
“It was the worst experience I ever had in my life,” the victim testified, telling the jury that he had to pay another $3,000 to move all the items the company missed.
Prince must also forfeit $100,000 from his ill-gotten gains, and will have to pay a to-be-determined amount in restitution, United States Circuit Judge Denny Chin ruled Wednesday.
Prince was an “important cog” and vital to the scheme, Chin said.
“This was a very severe crime, a troubling crime, taking advantage of people in a time of need,” the judge said.
The owner of the company, Yakov Moroz, who was indicted in 2020, jumped bail in January. He’s believed to be hiding in Israel, according to law enforcement sources.
“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,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said. “It is Prince who will be moving — to a federal prison.