[Shadow_Group] Fw: Getting fleeced

[shadowgroup-l at lists.resist.ca]

Please note that many, many Israeli moving companies are Mossad fronts.)

The Seattle Times.

Ex-workers detail tactics of movers 

By Peter Lewis
Seattle Times consumer-affairs reporter

 
 
Erik Deri ran Nationwide and is on trial along with three others. 
 
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TACOMA - A former moving-company foreman told jurors yesterday that he
and his co-workers used to brag and laugh about how they had fleeced
customers by overcharging for household moving jobs. 
"We were happy," recounted Michael Airgood, referring to how much extra
money they brought in by cheating people. 

Airgood testified as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.
The potentially damaging testimony came at the start of week three in the
government's case against now-defunct Nationwide Moving Systems of
Woodinville and four people charged with extorting customers. They are
accused of luring customers with low prices, then jacking up costs and
holding their goods hostage until they paid. 

Airgood, 24, of Lynnwood said his superiors taught him to get the
customer's signature on certain forms as soon as the moving crew showed
up and before the forms were fully filled out. He also would tell them
the move could not start unless they signed. 

Then, after their stuff was loaded and the truck was locked, he would
present customers with a significantly higher price than the original
estimate and point to the signed forms, which gave the movers permission
to charge more than the original quote and to hold the goods until the
price was paid, Airgood testified. 

The government has identified more than 50 customers who were harmed
between the time Nationwide was formed in May 2002 and was shut down in
July 2003. Actual and intended losses - including the amount the
defendants tried to defraud customers out of - exceeded $1 million,
prosecutors contend. 

"Unhappy customers" 

In opening statements, defense attorneys denied that the business was
trying to defraud customers. 

They contended that moving-company customers themselves were to blame for
the higher prices because they underestimated how much stuff they had. 

"All businesses have unhappy customers," said defense attorney Bob Leen,
who represents Erik Deri, who ran the company. 

On trial along with Deri, 33, are Yosef Nahum, 55, and Yuval Derei, 30.
All are Israeli nationals facing deportation if convicted. Yuval Derei is
Erik Deri's brother but spells his name differently. The fourth
defendant, American-born Tanya Deri, 29, is Deri's wife. 
 
  
  
 
Airgood is one of three other people, including Kristen Klein and Martin
Kirk II, who were also charged but reached deals with the government and
agreed to testify against their former associates. 

Yesterday, Airgood said Deri, Nahum and Derei taught him how to drive up
prices. Those techniques included underpacking boxes, leaving gaps inside
trucks when furniture and boxes were loaded and lying to customers about
the size of the trucks into which their stuff was loaded, Airgood
testified. 

Airgood, who worked for Nationwide as a packer and later as a foreman,
has pleaded guilty to six counts of extortion. His sentencing won't occur
until the trial is over. 

Low-balling estimates 

His common-law wife, Klein, also 24, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud.
She testified that she worked as a secretary and that her superiors
taught her how to lure customers with phony estimates. 

For example, if a customer said they had a sofa, she would indicate they
had a love seat when she entered an inventory of their items into a
computer program. By indicating a smaller piece of furniture, the program
would give a lower estimate. 

Then when the movers showed up to load the goods, the belongings would
take up more room. The point was to "reel in" customers by offering
unbeatable prices, Klein testified. 

Defense attorneys have dismissed the testimony from former employees as
"bought and paid for" by the government. The cooperating defendants
expect reduced sentences in exchange for their testimony. The trial is
expected to last another couple of weeks. 

Peter Lewis: 206-464-2217 or plewis at seattletimes.com<mailto:plewis at seattletimes.com>

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