Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz has filed charges against a former Amazon employee accused of stealing nearly 2,000 pairs of high-value work boots and sneakers. As reported by the Queens District Attorney's Office, the defendant, Asraf Mohamed, allegedly used his knowledge of internal company systems to carry out the theft.
According to the charges laid out by DA Katz, Mohamed's tenure at Amazon's Maspeth facility lasted from July 2020 to September 2023, a period in which he was responsible for training new drivers, and it is during this time he allegedly gained access to a national database of new employees and, between November 12, 2022, and June 9, 2023, he is accused of creating fake accounts in the names of new employees trafficking the fraudulently obtained footwear online, and he made off with quite the haul before his termination.
The footwear theft, valued at $224,834, saw Mohamed allegedly set up 1,838 unique accounts with Zappos.com, an Amazon subsidiary, to take advantage of Amazon's Zappos at Work program, which outfits employees with free work-appropriate shoes. A discovery was made that 79 shoe orders were delivered to Mohamed's residence and another 1,759 orders to his brother's place in Queens, with brands snatched up including Timberland and Dr. Martens.
Mohamed is now facing charges with grand larceny in the second degree and criminal possession of stolen property in the second degree. According to Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, he was arraigned and ordered to return to court on September 16. If convicted of the top charge, he faces a potential sentence of five to 15 years in prison.
The arrest was the culmination of a collaborative investigative effort involving several law enforcement agencies, including NYPD Financial Crimes Task Force and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, among others. Assistant District Attorney Dimitris Gizas of the District Attorney’s Frauds Bureau is spearheading the prosecution of the case, which is supervised by Assistant District Attorney Hana Kim, and overseen by Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Gerard Brave.
