The owner of a Colorado-based moving company was sentenced earlier this month following him pleading guilty last year to charges of defrauding customers.

Yaron Roni Levin received 33 months confinement and 36 months supervised release by the U.S. District Court in Denver, along with being ordered to pay restitution in the amount of more than $92,000 to 19 victims of household goods moving fraud. He was also ordered to have no involvement with household goods moving businesses for the time he is incarcerated and on supervised release.

Levin, the owner of Movers USA/Golden Hand Movers, admitted last November to luring customers with extremely low moving estimates and then fraudulently inflating the price of transportation. When customers refused, or were unable to pay, Levin refused delivery and often threatened to auction their household goods until the inflated price was paid.

Levin routinely doubled quoted estimates for an average increase of $2,000 to $5,000, although some victims were charged as much as $10,000 over the initial estimates, according to the U.S. Transportation Department’s Office of Inspector General. It investigated the case along the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the FBI.

This investigation was part of Inspector General’s “Operation Boxed Up”, a national investigative initiative to locate, identify and prosecute interstate household goods movers who are defrauding consumers.

0 Comments