Three Paterson men ran extortion scheme targeting their moving company customers
By Jonathan Greene
Published: December 21, 2021
Three men have been arrested for allegedly running an extortion scheme that targeted customers of their moving company, according to authorities.
Abdal Abuawad, 26; Abdalh Abuawad, 28; Yousef AlMallad, 31, all of Paterson, have been charged with conspiring to commit wire fraud.
Abdal and Abdalh are brothers from Jordan. They created Abda Moving LLC, d/b/a 11Even Movers & Storage (11Even) to further their scheme. They employed AlMallad as a manager. Customers hired 11Even through a household goods broker to handle moving and relocations.
Abdal and AlMallad would then arrive at the customers’ home to move their household goods. They would load all a customer’s goods onto a truck and then drastically increase price of the move by two or three times the quoted estimate, authorities said. They then demanded the customer pay 50 percent in cash on the spot.
11Even regularly failed to deliver customers’ household goods for months, authorities said. Customers that called 11Even to complain about the price increase and failed deliveries would find themselves speaking to Abdalh, AlMallad, or other co-conspirators on the calls. Customers were told their complaint is being looked into, but they rarely got a returned phone call. 11Even would not respond to subsequent calls or texts, authorities said.
Abdal was arrested in New Mexico on December 13. His brother Abdalh and his manager AlMallad were arrested on December 10.
The trio could face 20 years in prison and fines up to $250,000.