MANHATTAN: A massive shoplifting ring lifted nearly $4 million in luxury goods and other items off New York City stores’ shelves to be sold on eBay, authorities said.
But the ring’s reputed reign ended Thursday when state Attorney General Letitia James announced a takedown that led to an indictment against 41 people.
Flanked by Mayor Eric Adams and tables full of stolen goods, James laid out the structure of a sprawling criminal enterprise she said was headed by a pawn shop owner and gold buyer named Roni Rubinov, 42, from Fresh Meadows.
Rubinov hired at least 30 “boosters” — or shoplifters — who pillaged the shelves of stores across the city, James said.
“These items were stolen from stores such as Bloomingdales, Macy’s Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom Rack, Duane Reade, CVS and Sephora seven days a week,” she said.
The takedown dovetails with alarms raised by local business groups, such as in Harlem, about a devastating wave of shoplifting.
Concerns went viral when actor Michael Rapaport filmed a brazen shoplifting in front of a security guard. And Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in January announced a task force would tackle the borough’s shoplifting problem.
All the while, a three-year investigation into a shoplifting ring was apparently wrapping up, as James’ account Thursday shows.
Investigators with the Office of the Attorney General’s Organized Crime Task Force and NYPD seized more than $3.8 million worth of stolen retail items from Rubinov, more than 550 stolen gift and cash cards and more than $300,000 in cash, authorities said.
The goods included high-end designer clothing, purses, shoes, cosmetics, medicine and drug store products, James said.
Boosters dropped the items off at two West 47th Street businesses — New Libery Loans Pawn Shop and Romanov Gold Buyers — and sold them for 6 to 8 percent of their retail value, authorities said.
Eleven other people managed the scheme’s day-to-day operations, which funneled stolen merchandise to stash houses in Fresh Meadows, James said.
The items would then be sold on an eBay store called Treasure-Deals-USA, authorities said.
Adams said going after shoplifters is not, as some critics have argued, “criminalizing poverty.”
“No, this was greed,” he said. “Greed that attempted to exploit New Yorkers. In New York City, we’ll investigate, arrest and prosecute criminals of every kind. It doesn’t matter if you are dealing guns illegally, or stolen products, because the law is the law.”
By Matt Troutman [Patch]
