4 brothers accused of $19M Amazon’s vendor system scam

 Four Rockland brothers are accused of scheming Amazon’s vendor system out of $19 million, according to a federal indictment.

Federal law enforcement agencies arrested Yoel Abraham, Heshl Abraham, Zishe Abraham and Shmuel Abraham in Monsey on Wednesday, saying they tried to get $32 million out of the scheme.

They were indicted in federal court by a grand jury on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and four counts of monetary transactions involving crime proceeds.

From about 2017 to 2019, they're accused practicing "overshipping," where the shipments, invoices and money received for goods are much higher than what Amazon’s vendor system and the suspects originally agreed to.

For example, in August 2018, Amazon’s vendor system and one of the suspects agreed on one case of 12 canisters of a disinfectant spray at $94.03 per pack. Instead, the suspect sent 7,000 toothbrushes for $94.03 per brush and invoiced Amazon’s vendor system $628,843, according to the federal indictment, which outlines several more examples like this.

“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 defendants were bilking Amazon for goods they never provided," Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a statement. "The more our economic life moves online, the more we must ensure the integrity of our digital markets, which my office is committed to doing.”

The four brothers spoke to each other about the scheme and gave each other tips using an encrypted group text on WhatsApp, according to the indictment.

The scheme started with small items, but the brothers went for bigger scores, as outlined in the texts in the indictment.

On May 1, 2018, Yoel Abraham texted, "Did anyone try to overship and make a million profit in a week?"

When Amazon’s vendor system detected their fraudulent activity, they allegedly helped each other throw off the retailer's scent by opening multiple other accounts under different names and e-mail addresses and using a VPN to mask their login locations.