A Fresh Meadows father and son face federal fraud charges for their alleged roles in extorting their moving company customers to pay more money by refusing to return their belongings, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
Michael Nadel, 65, and Yarin Nadel, 35, were arrested and be arraigned before the federal court in Brooklyn on Oct. 29. They were each released on a $20,000 bond. Authorities say that the pair own several interstate moving companies.
According to charges, between February 2018 and April 2019, the men allegedly agreed with other participants to defraud customers by misrepresenting the estimates for their moving services. The duo would then allegedly charge their customers 10 percent more than the estimated cost after they already had the customers’ belongings in their trucks.
The criminal complaint alleges the the Nadels would refuse to deliver the customers’ belongings until they paid the additional fees, often threatening to sell or auction the goods.
As a part of the scheme, the Nadels allegedly also misrepresented the number of movers as well as the quality control that would be used to transport the goods.
Through this scheme, the Nadels allegedly obtained an additional $100,000 in fees from over a dozen customers, according to the criminal complaint.
It is also alleged that between November 2015 and July 2019, the defendants and unapprehended others agreed to submit forms to the United States Department of Transportation with false information about the motor vehicle operations that were under their ownership, including failing to disclose information about their motor carriers’ affiliations with other operators who had their operating authority revoked or suspended.
