Monday, November 15, 2004 Movers
go on trial for alleged extortion By Peter
Lewis
Seattle Times
consumer-affairs reporter  Erik
Deri is one of four people
going on trial in the alleged scam.
FOUR people go on trial in
federal court in Tacoma today on charges they
extorted customers in a household-moving scam by
luring them with low prices, then jacking up costs
and holding their goods hostage until they
paid. Now defunct, Woodinville-based Nationwide Moving
Systems harmed more than 50 people, the government
alleges. Actual and intended losses -- including
the amount the defendants tried to defraud
customers out of -- exceeded $1 million,
prosecutors contend. According to the government, the defendants
would delay notifying customers of the inflated
prices until after their goods were loaded. This
had the effect of squeezing customers, the
prosecutors say. Some customers, for example, faced penalties
from airlines if they canceled previously scheduled
travel arrangements; some were under pressure
because they had to relocate for a new job. Others
were stuck because their leases had expired or
their homes had been sold and so they had nowhere
to stay, the government alleges. Of seven people originally charged, three --
Martin Kirk II, 25, and Michael
Airgood and Kristen Klein, both 24 --
have pleaded guilty and have agreed to testify
against the remaining defendants. They are: Erik Deri, 33; Yosef
Nahum, 55; and Yuval Derei, 30,
all of whom are Israeli
nationals facing deportation if convicted.
Yuval Derei is Erik Deri's brother. The fourth
defendant, American-born Tanya Deri, 29, is
Deri's wife. According to charging papers, the investigation
was sparked after a March 2003 Seattle Times
article described customer experiences with
Nationwide. Each of the defendants
is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud
and interfere with commerce by extortion, which
carries up to five years' imprisonment and a
$250,000 fine. In addition, they face multiple
counts of fraud and attempted extortion, each of
which carries up to 20 years and a $250,000
fine. Some of the defendants face additional
charges. Nationwide used the Web and the Yellow Pages to
advertise, and it sometimes purchased moving jobs
from other moving companies. It falsely represented
itself as a reputable, insured and licensed moving
company, the prosecutors alleged. The scam started
in May 2002 and ended in July 2003, the government
said. The trial has been delayed several times, most
recently in August as a result of a U.S. Supreme
Court ruling that cast doubt on the
constitutionality of federal sentencing guidelines.
The so-called "Blakely" ruling, which grew out of a
Washington state case, established the principle
that jurors, not judges, must decide the facts that
determine a criminal sentence. As a result, U.S. District Judge Franklin
Burgess of Tacoma recently ordered the
Nationwide case split into two parts. If jurors
convict, they would then reconvene to consider
additional evidence, such as the vulnerability and
number of victims and amount of financial loss,
that could lead to stiffer punishment. The trial is expected to last about a month. The
government plans to introduce roughly 400 exhibits
and call nearly 100 witnesses, records show. Among the victims on the government's witness
list is John Jennings, a former Issaquah
resident, who told The Times his move to
Florida in September 2002 was spoiled by
Nationwide. He said the company had
revised the price upward from
$3,000 to $16,000 -- and then refused his
request to unload his possessions after he
objected. Ultimately, the total cost of his move,
after hiring a different company to retrieve, move
and re-store his possessions, exceeded $11,000. Another victim scheduled to testify is Sarah
DeLassus, who hired Nationwide to move from
Seattle to Antioch, Ill., in February 2003. She
said her belongings arrived two weeks later than
promised. Virtually everything she owned was
broken, shredded, soiled, splintered or otherwise
mutilated, she and her mother said. DeLassus estimated the loss at between $4,000
and $5,000. In addition, several boxes of her
belongings never arrived, she said. DeLassus said the
government's Seattle-based witness/victim
coordinator told her earlier this year that "she
had never worked on a case where people were so
eager to participate" as opposed to feeling
annoyed about having to testify. The defendants' attorneys have been mum about
their trial strategy. But a criminal-defense
attorney familiar with the case said he expects the
defense will focus on the forms customers signed
when they agreed to hire Nationwide, specifically
regarding permission to charge more if customers
underestimated how much stuff they had. Lawyers for Tanya Deri and Yuval Derei have
minimized their clients' roles. At a hearing last
year, for example, Jim Frush, representing
Tanya Deri, described her as "tangentially
involved," a characterization disputed by Assistant
U.S. Attorney Kathryn Warma. Deri's lawyer, Peter Camiel, said his
client responded to his older brother's (Erik
Deri's) invitation to join the business, but didn't
start working for Nationwide until March 2003.
Derei worked primarily as a dispatcher and had
"very limited contact" with customers, Camiel
contended. A development that could be useful for the
defense was the firing earlier this year of the
government's case agent: Melanie Jaimerson,
a Seattle-based special agent with the Department
of Transportation's Office of the Inspector
General. Defense attorneys were eager to learn
whether her dismissal was related to the
Nationwide case. But after her personnel file
was submitted to the court under seal, Burgess
said it was not. Still, the defense has copies of the interviews
Jaimerson conducted with witnesses. If the
witnesses tell a different story under oath than
they told her, the defense could use the
transcripts to impeach their credibility. And
because the government has scratched Jaimerson from
its witness list, she would not be available to
assist in countering such attacks. If history is any measure, the defendants face
an uphill battle. The Seattle prosecution is
similar to other recent
federal extortion cases that implicated Israeli-run
moving companies around the country,
including California, New York and Florida.
In virtually every instance, the defendants pleaded
guilty or were convicted by jurors, officials
said. In the Nationwide case, prosecutors plan to
present a household-goods moving-industry expert to
testify about standard practices adopted to avoid
customer fraud, obtain accurate moving estimates
and resolve consumer complaints. By contrast, Nationwide customers will testify
that their goods were damaged and/or stolen, and
that their efforts to file claims with the company
were typically "rebuffed, ignored, or evaded," the
government said in court papers. And in some cases,
the defendants stole household goods entrusted to
Nationwide's care, the government
contends. Peter
Lewis: phone 206-464-2217 Copyright © 2004
The Seattle Times Company 
...
on this website
Our
website dossier: The origins of
anti-Semitism-
Mar 2003: A
Radical's Diary, on Khalid Shaikh Mohammed,
Miami "furniture removers", and other
scams-
Moving scam
Companies
charged customers double contracted price: Two
convicted, others flee to Israel
-
- That
other "Israeli furniture remover" story:
-
-
May 2004: Movers and
Fakers: Two
wanted Israelis now in Federal Custody |
Hold Put on
Arrested Israelis | Two
Israelis in Tennessee court in handcuffs |
Two
Israeli Chase suspects held without bond |
arson
accelerant was tossed from their Ryder Truck
| Israelis
with fake docs arrested, 'how to fly' leaflet
found! FBI called in
[Wasn't in your local
paper either, eh?]
-
Daniel Hopsicker reports:
Israeli
"movers" in submarine-base scare to be ...
freed
Navy locks
down King's Bay Submarine Base (Georgia) after
two Israeli "movers" are detained |
Two
Israelis held for deportation-
Turns out
that Shmuel Dahan, leader of the two Israeli
'furniture movers' arrested in Tennessee car
chase -- now freed! -- is son of top Likud Party
official, was once chief of National Union of
Israeli Students
|
write to David
Irving