Summary

OIG and FBI special agents have arrested 50 individuals, following a major sting involving household-goods moving fraud against 74 individuals and 16 moving companies located in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and other cities in southern Florida. On March 6, Federal grand juries in Miami handed down 8 indictments charging the companies and individual owners, operators, and employees with fraud, extortion, creating false weight tickets, and in some cases, money laundering in the conspiracy. The defendants allegedly lured customers with low estimates and then fraudulently jacked up the price of the move, withholding possessions in undisclosed locations until the customers paid up. While the indictments name 16 firms, the individual defendants are the listed owners and or operators of more than 40 different moving companies.