A former Amazon employee at a Maspeth facility is accused of stealing nearly 2,000 pairs of work boots and sneakers worth $224,000 from a program meant to provide free safety footwear to new workers and reselling them online.
Asraf Mohamed, 33, of Forbell Street in the City Line section of Brooklyn, was arraigned July 22 in Queens Criminal Court on a criminal complaint charging him with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. If he is convicted of the top count, Mohamed faces up to five to 15 years in prison.
According to the charges and investigation conducted by the NYPD Financial Crimes Task Force, Mohamed worked at the DBK4 Amazon warehouse at 55-15 Grand Ave. in Maspeth from July 2020 to September 2023, when he was terminated. In his role, Mohamed was responsible for training new drivers and had access to a national database for new employees.
Between Nov. 12, 2022, and June 9, 2023, Mohamed allegedly created 1,838 unique accounts with Zappos.com, an Amazon subsidiary, using the information of new workers through an Amazon program called Zappos at Work. The program was designed to provide employees with a free pair of work boots or sneakers to be worn on the job.
A total of 79 shoe orders were delivered to Mohamed’s City Line residence in Brooklyn, and an additional 1,759 orders were delivered to his brother’s home on Metropolitan Avenue in Middle Village, the charges state. The footwear brands included Timberland, Dr. Martens, Wolverine, Carhartt, New Balance and Brooks. Mohamed allegedly sold the footwear, which had a total retail value of nearly a quarter million dollars, on eBay.
He was arrested Tuesday morning outside his Brooklyn home.
”As alleged, this defendant took advantage of his position at Amazon to gather information on fellow workers, compromising their safety to line his own pockets to the tune of $224,000,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “Retail theft, whether against mom-and-pop shops or large corporations, hurts all consumers as it causes prices to rise.”
Queens Criminal Court Judge Jerry Iannece ordered Mohamed to return to court on Sept. 16, and he was released on his own recognizance. Other agencies assisting the Queens DA’s office in the investigation included the NYPD’s Crimes Against Persons Bureau, as well as members of U.S. Homeland Security Investigations New York, the Nassau County Sheriff’s Department and the Port Authority Police Department.
“I thank the prosecutors of my dedicated Fraud Bureau and our law enforcement partners for their work on the long-term investigation,” Katz said.
