stoneReport

TheCorner

Safeguarding America through

Financial Investigations

Volume VI: No. 4 • Fall 2009

Inside This Issue

Following the Money 

Related to Organized 

Retail Crime . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Cornerstone is U.S. Immigration 

and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE)

comprehensive investigative 

initiative for fighting financial crime.

The Cornerstone Report is a quarterly 

bulletin highlighting key issues 

related to ICE financial, narcotics 

and public safety investigations.

Toll-Free Tip Line:

1-866-DHS-2-ICE

www.ice.gov/cornerstone

ICE and Organized Retail Crime

International Money Laundering

I

CE’s Office of Investigations is 

well aware of the impact of Organized Retail Crime (ORC) on more 

than just the retail industry and 

economy of the United States. ICE 

investigations have demonstrated 

that profits generated from ORC 

represent a clear threat to the U.S. 

financial sector because these profits 

may be laundered through U.S. and 

international financial systems. Similar to other criminal organizations, 

ORC rings look for and exploit the 

vulnerabilities within these financial 

infrastructures to move and store 

their illicit proceeds. 

ICE is involved in a myriad of investigations that target a wide range of 

criminal activity, including money 

laundering, narcotics trafficking, illegal importation and export, violation 

of intellectual property laws, human 

smuggling and trafficking, gang 

activity, and human rights violations. 

ICE agents have broad investigative 

authorities under Titles 8, 18, and 31 

of the United States Code, permitting 

them to pursue many different types 

of criminal violations, including 

complex banking and financial misconduct cases, conduct warrantless 

searches at the border, and seize assets of criminal enterprises engaged 

in immigration and customs violations. The melding of these authorities and unique capabilities given to, 

and used by ICE enables it to identify, 

dismantle and disrupt the financial 

criminal enterprises that threaten our 

nation’s economy and security. 

From experience, ICE recognizes 

that ORC groups engage in activities 

that cross over into one or more of 

ICE’s ongoing initiatives or violate 

laws in which ICE has jurisdiction. 

In addition, ICE has an extensive 

history of productive partnerships 

with private industry.

I

CE has become 

increasingly involved in investigations that target ORC 

due to the interstate 

and international 

shipments of stolen 

goods and the corresponding movement 

of illicit proceeds 

from the sale of 

these stolen goods. 

In 2006, as part of 

the Violence Against Women and 

Department of Justice Reauthorization Act, Congress passed provisions 

targeted at combating the estimated 

$30 billion in merchandise losses 

from retail stores each year. Section 1105 of this bill was related to 

organized retail theft and continued

 The ICE Organized Retail Crime Pilot Program

U.S. Currency and weapons seized by ICE and Fort Worth Police 

Department connected to an ORC ring in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.
was the first federal legislation to 

define organized 

retail theft. It also provided funding to assist the retail community in 

the development and maintenance 

of a database, now known as the 

Law Enforcement Retail Partnership Network (LERPNet). LERPNet 

is a secure national database for the 

reporting of retail theft and serious 

incidents, which allow retailers to 

share information with each other 

and law enforcement. The new law 

provided an avenue for law enforcement to partner with the private 

sector in an effort to track and identify organized retail theft. 

ORC rings are very sophisticated, 

compartmentalized and operate 

similar to criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking or human 

smuggling. Furthermore, transnational criminal syndicates such 

as Eastern European street gangs 

and organized crime elements have 

become increasingly involved, and 

utilize traditional money laundering 

techniques to conceal their profits. 

ICE developed a pilot program 

that addresses the ORC threat. 

The ORC Pilot Program was 

launched on July 6, 2009, in 

Houston, Los Angeles, Miami 

and New York, and is scheduled 

to last for an initial period of 

six months. The ORC Pilot 

Program focuses on four primary 

areas, including:

1)the development of a threat 

assessment to determine how 

these groups are engaged in 

crimes over which ICE has 

jurisdiction;

2)the development of a 

tracking system aimed at 

assessing ICE’s involvement 

in ORC cases;

3)the development of a database that will be made available to the field with retail 

industry contacts for the 

affected ICE offices; and

4)an enhanced effort to fully 

explore how these groups 

are exploiting systemic vulnerabilities in the banking 

system to launder 

their profits.

The ICE ORC Pilot Program 

encompasses all types of ORCrelated criminal activities under 

the jurisdiction of ICE, including 

those committed over the Internet. Expect to see some significant 

successes in the coming months 

related to the leads developed 

through the pilot program.

The ICE Organized Retail Crime Pilot Program

Continued

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Volume VI: No. 4

Fall 2009

Photos above show merchandise seized during 

the Mohammed Ghali ORC investigation.
Following the Money Related to Organized Retail Crime

Rosemont Wholesale Inc. Investigation

I

CE, the Internal 

Revenue Service 

Criminal Investigation, the Federal 

Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. 

Department of Agriculture—

Office of Inspector General and 

the Oakland Police Department 

worked together on a nearly two 

and one-half year investigation 

looking into the activities of an 

ORC ring operating in the San Francisco Bay Area with ties throughout 

the United States and abroad.

Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) reports were 

used during this financial investigation to identify the owners of both 

the wholesale operation and the 

fencing locations. Through these reports, agents discovered structuring 

activity, additional bank accounts, 

and common addresses used by the 

various suspects connected to the 

ORC ring. 

The ring leader in this ORC ring 

was a company known as Rosemont 

Wholesale, Inc. Hassan Swaid 

was the president, chief executive 

officer and owner. 

Between 1998 and February 2007, 

Swaid paid more than $9 million 

dollars for stolen goods and then 

shipped the stolen goods to out-ofstate customers. 

The merchandise that was purchased included baby formula 

and over-the-counter medications 

such as Tylenol, teeth whitening 

products and razor blades, which 

had been stolen by professional 

shoplifters, drug addicts and thieves 

from major retailers that included 

Safeway, Target, Walgreens and WalMart. Rosemont then sold the goods 

over the Internet and shipped them 

to other states. 

The investigation revealed Swaid 

had two main sources of stolen 

goods, the owners of two Oakland 

convenience stores—Kings 

Food Market and 1 Star Discount 

Store —and the owners of a 

San Francisco convenience store – 

Jimmy’s Market. These convenience 

stores bought the stolen goods 

from professional shoplifters at 

prices far below their actual value 

and sold the products to Swaid. 

The stolen goods were brought 

to Swaid’s warehouse in Hayward, 

Calif., and were advertised over 

the Internet on a Web site owned by 

Swaid—www.wholesaleramp.com. 

Swaid had structured his payments 

to his illegal sources continued

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Volume VI: No. 4

Fall 2009

Photos above show a suspected booster stealing merchandise from Safeway Inc. and then 

arriving at King Food International, where he brought the merchandise inside and came out 

empty handed.
Following the Money Related to Organized Retail Crime

Rosemont Wholesale Inc. Investigation — Continued

to evade the 

filing of Currency 

Transaction Reports 

by banks which would have caused 

scrutiny of these transactions. 

On Feb. 8, 2007, federal agents 

executed search warrants at 

six locations in the East Bay including the two Oakland convenience 

stores and Rosemont Wholesale’s 

warehouse in Hayward. The searches 

uncovered more than $4 million 

in over-the-counter medications, 

baby formula, and personal hygiene 

products. Twelve trailer loads of 

merchandise were seized from Rosemont’s warehouse.

Swaid was convicted on June 24, 

2009, following a six week jury 

trial in Oakland, Calif. for conspiring to purchase stolen merchandise 

from major retailers and shipping 

the stolen goods to out of state 

customers, and for structuring 

his finances to avoid currency 

transaction reports. 

On October 16, 2009, Swaid was 

sentenced to 78 months in prison 

and was immediately remanded to 

the custody of U.S. Marshals.

Convictions were also obtained 

against five other individuals:

• Mossleh Abdo Amari, 49, of San 

Leandro, Calif., an employee at 

Kings Food Market, one of Swaid’s 

main sources of stolen goods, 

located in Oakland;

• Ammar Abdo Alamari, 27, of San 

Leandro, Mossleh Amari’s brother;

• Basheer Mossleh Abdo Ammari, 

26, of San Leandro, Mossleh 

Amari’s son;

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Volume VI: No. 4

Fall 2009

•Business checks written to individuals as 

opposed to legitimate suppliers.

•Business checks cashed at the banks from 

which the checks originated instead of 

being deposited into another business’ 

bank account.

•Business checks written to cash on a regular 

basis in amounts that exceed a business’ 

petty cash requirement.

•Multiple business checks connected to a 

wholesale merchandise operation written on the 

same day in amounts less than $10,000.

•Multiple money orders in increments of 

$500 or less deposited into bank accounts 

where the remitter of the money order is 

the same as the authorized signers on the 

bank accounts for which the checks are 

being deposited.

•	Subjects ofsuspicious financial transactions

connected to a wholesale merchandise 

operation all maintaining the same address.

•Occupations listed for the subjects of 

suspicious financial activitiesthat are

not commensurate to the volume and type 

of the financial activities.

•Checks negotiated in foreign countries related to 

suspicious financial transactions.

•Cash depositsrelated to financial activities

involving currency in $100 denominations.

Red Flag Indicators

Photo of the inside of the Rosemont Wholesale Inc. warehouse taken on the day of the 

search warrants.

• Mona Aboushi, 32, of Elk Grove, 

Calif.; and 

• Mohammad Abbushi, 31, of San 

Francisco, Swaid’s other main 

source of stolen goods, operating 

out of a residence in Daly City, Calif.

On Sept. 9, 2008, Mossleh Abdo 

Amari pleaded guilty to conspiracy 

to transport stolen property, structuring currency in order to evade 

filing Currency Transaction Reports, 

three counts of filing false tax returns and tax evasion. Alamari pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport 

stolen property and structuring 

currency. Basheer Ammari pleaded 

guilty to structuring currency. 

On April 7, 2009, Mona Aboushi 

pled guilty to making a false statement in conjunction with the investigation into the stolen goods. On 

May 8, 2009, Mohammad Abbushi 

pled guilty to conspiracy to structure currency and to transport stolen 

goods in interstate commerce.

All remaining defendants are currently awaiting sentencing.