Ulta CEO Dave Kimbell has weighed in on a wealthy California mom who allegedly ran a crime gang that targeted his stores and made $8million selling stolen goods on Amazon.
Michelle Mack, 53, and her husband Kenneth allegedly ran a gang dubbed the ‘California Girls’ by investigators, who say the couple operated in more than a dozen states coast to coast, targeting outlets including LensCrafters, Sephora and at least 231 Ulta stores.
Police found a ‘mini-store’ of goods worth $350,000 in a raid on her $3 million home, which features a vineyard and a chapel, which the company rented out for weddings and Airbnb.
‘The network she built across the country was impacting multiple stores and so by eliminating that, it’s a step,’ Kimbell told CNBC. ‘But unfortunately, I know there are others out there that are just like that.’
Kimbell also took aim at online retail stores, saying they offer more opportunity for people to ‘liquidate’ the stolen items.
Ulta CEO Dave Kimbell has weighed in on a wealthy California mom who allegedly ran a crime gang that targeted his stores
Michelle Mack, 53, pictured with husband Kenneth, was the alleged mastermind of a nationwide shoplifting organization which netted the couple $8 million over a decade
Police say they found $350,000 worth of stolen goods when they raided their $3 million mansion in northern San Diego County
He added: ‘You used to have to sell stolen goods at flea markets or out of the trunk of your car, or maybe just locally. Now, you have more sophisticated tools to have a broader reach across the country or even internationally.
‘We shouldn’t have an environment where it’s possible to steal from one retailer and [have it] end up on any other platform, any other large-scale, mainstream platform.’
Amazon has said they spend $1 billion annually to detect stolen listings.
Mack allegedly paid air fares, hotel bills and car rental costs for up to a dozen operatives, who would post their loot to her home in Bonsall before she sold it on for knock-down prices through a front company on Amazon Marketplace.
She and her husband have pleaded not guilty.
‘If you try to make an easy buck off of other people’s hard work, we will arrest you and prosecute you,’ said California Attorney General Rob Bonta said, as charges were filed.
Investigators spent more than two years trying to break the gang which was tasked with clearing entire shelves of goods which they concealed in Louis Vuitton bags.
The accused couple’s home in California features a vineyard, seen above
It also includes a chapel, which the company rented out for weddings and Airbnb
Mack and her eight co-defendants have denied the charges against them
The conspiracy stated to unravel when two shoplifters were arrested in an Ulta store on the East Coast and one of them told police that she was working for a woman in California. A search of her phone revealed dozens of messages from a woman later identified as Mack.
Investigators then found that Mack ran a retail outlet on Amazon called Online Makeup Store which offered more than 300 items on its product line.
‘The items listed for sale were nearly 50 percent off the actual retail price, which was included in the sales listing,’ a search warrant application explained. ‘This steep discount suggested the items were being fenced.’
Amazon provided investigators with records showing the outfit had racked up sales worth $8 million since 2012, including nearly $2 million in 2022 alone.
Papers filed by the Attorney General’s office note that ‘the manner in which Defendants carried out the crimes indicates planning, sophistication, or professionalism’.
Police described the haul as a ‘mini-market’ after discovering it laid out warehouse style in the 4,500 square foot mansion in Bonsall
Stolen cosmetics were sold online from the home at half their retail value, prosecutors claim
Alleged gang member Alina Franco, reportedly had $67,000 worth of stolen beauty products at her home in Colton, San Bernardino, when her home was raided on the same day. She appeared in court on February 27 where she denied multiple felony counts
Investigators raided her home in northern San Diego County on December 6 before filing 140 charges against Mack, her husband Kenneth, and seven of her alleged gang.
On entering the 4,500 square foot mansion they ‘located and seized hundreds of parcels prepped for shipment that would be ultimately mailed at the local Post Office’.
The charges include 136 felony counts of grand theft, two counts of receiving stolen property, one count of conspiracy and one count of organized retail crime.
One of the women, Alina Franco, reportedly had $67,000 worth of stolen beauty products at her home in Colton, San Bernardino, when her home was raided on the same day.
The National Retail Federation estimates that retailers lost $40.5 billion to shoplifters in 2022, much of it to organized gangs.
The number of cases brought against organized theft groups by Homeland Security Investigations more than tripled from 59 to 199 between 2021 and 2022.
