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There may be more victims of 11Even Movers & Storage out there who haven’t contacted authorities, bureau officials said Monday, urging them to come forward.
Abdal Abuawad, 26, was brought before a federal judge in Newark on Monday following his arrest in New Mexico last week, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said.
He was released on a $300,000 unsecured bond, as were his brother, Abdalh Abuawad, 28, a Jordanian national, and Yousef AlMallad, 31, Sellinger said.
The Abuawad brothers are both Jordanian nationals living in Paterson, the U.S. attorney said.
They and AlMallad, of Paterson, are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The Abuawad brothers established Abda Moving LLC – known as 11 Even – and hired AlMallad as their manager, Sellinger said.
Together, they extorted customers into paying “drastically increased fees for moving services once the customer was in a vulnerable state and unable to refuse their demands,” he said.
“Customers often arranged relocation or moving services through a household goods broker that provided the customer with an estimate of the cost of services,” Sellinger said.
Abdal, AlMallad or others then showed up, loaded the customer’s belongings onto a truck, then stuck them with a jacked-up bill two or even three times the quoted estimate, the U.S. attorney said.
They then demanded that the victims pay a least half of the inflated cost in cash right then and there, he said.
11Even then took months to deliver customers’ belongings – if they delivered them at all, Sellinger said.
When customers called to complain, “Abdalh, AlMallad or other conspirators would field the calls” and “often claimed to be looking into complaints,” the U.S. attorney said.
However, they “rarely returned any customer phone calls and ultimately failed to answer any subsequent calls or texts,” he said.
“There are as many fraud schemes as there are fraudsters and, so, awareness is still the best form of fraud prevention,” FBI Special Agent in Charge George M. Crouch, Jr. said.
“Before contracting with a moving company, do your homework,” he said. “Search reviews, get recommendations from others, and get bids from multiple sources to see how they do business. Don’t let price drive your decision or it could end up costing you far more than you imagine.”
Crouch also asked anyone who might have been victimized by 11EVEN, Abda Moving, or Mallad Traiding to contact the FBI Newark Field Office: (973) 792-3000. OR EMAIL: 11evenvictims@fbi.gov.
Sellinger credited FBI Newark’s Transnational Organized Crime Task Force in Newark, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department, Rockaway Township police and police in Medford, Oregon and the Simi Valley, California with the investigation leading to the charges.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Angelica M. Sinopole of his Organized Crime & Gangs Unit in Newark is handling the case.
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