Clip this column.
Next time you hire a moving company, staple it to the
contract.
Then grab the mover by his lapel. Pull him close. Close enough to
bite his earlobes. Summon up your best imitation of Tony Soprano,
menace dripping down your chin like spaghetti sauce, and growl,
``Twelve and a half years. Twelve and a half years.''
Your best hope for recovering household goods without paying
thousands in ransom, could be the new prospect that the old moving
scam can now ring up 4,566 days in a federal pen.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga slapped a 12 ½-
year sentence on Yair Malol, also known as, Yanni, aka Charlie Levy,
aka Danny Malol, aka Allen Mallul, aka Zahi Melul.
Malol adopted company names as frequently as personal aliases in
his Plantation-based operation: Majesty Moving and Storage,
America's Best Movers, Star Movers, First Class Moving, My Best
Movers and Apollo Van Lines.
The companies all used the same 2001 Freightliner
tractor-trailer. And the same nefarious business plan.
He enticed consumers with low-ball estimates. But once his
workers loaded a customer's possessions into the moving van, the
price soared. By thousands of dollars. Malol refused to surrender
the goods until the customer paid the inflated bill.
LONG-RUNNING SCAM
The U.S. Attorney's Office offered its own estimate. It wasn't
low-ball. Over a two-year span, Malol had extorted $1.8 million from
more than a thousand victims. He and 73 other moving company
operators and employees, most from South Florida, were busted in
2003. Indictments named 16 companies, though some were phantom names
for the same operations. Other convictions preceded Malol's. And
long prison sentences. Finally, the feds seemed to be getting
tough.
But the moving scam has already evolved into one of nation's
great growth industries. In 2001, the Better Business Bureau logged
6,900 complaints against unscrupulous movers. Federal agencies
received 4,000.
Complaints have been escalating since Congress deregulated the
moving industry in 1995 and disbanded the Interstate Commerce
Commission, effectively ending federal oversight of the nastier
aspects of the business.
Worse, an industry-backed amendment to the deregulation bill
actually protects movers from civil lawsuits for fraud, extortion,
negligence, breach of contract, intentional misrepresentation and
other activities that pretty well define moving fraud. Before the
FBI moved in, the worst penalty facing a unscrupulous mover was a
refund of the overcharge.
LOCAL ENFORCEMENT
Since 1994, Broward and Miami-Dade counties have enforced local
ordinances aimed at low-ball extortionists.
''We can handle local cases, but we can't do anything about
interstate moves. Even if the business operates out of here. It's
very frustrating,'' said Mona Fandel, Broward County Director of
Consumer Affairs. ``I get calls from California, Mexico, all over.
People are hysterical. They don't know where to go or how to get
their possessions back.''
She said the FBI crackdown and the convictions have helped. Since
the arrests of local movers, Fandel said complaints to her office
about low-balling scammers have slowed to one or two a month.
But an overworked FBI isn't likely to keep moving scams a
long-range priority. And movers remain immune to tough civil
actions. Fandel warns that the only sure protection is for the
consumer to be very wary. Visit her office at 115 S. Andrews Ave.
and check out records on local moving companies. Look for
long-established companies. Worry, she said, about an estimate that
sounds too good to be true.
For good measure, mention to a mover the address, for the next
dozen years or so, of moving company magnate Yair Malol, aka federal
prisoner
69556-004.
