Asaf Nass, Extortion, California 2014

San Jose, California – In a shocking case of moving company malfeasance, Asaf Nass, operations manager for AY Transport, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to commit extortion in a moving fraud scheme, announced U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag.

On March 8, 2012, Nass pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit extortion in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. According to the plea agreement, Nass worked as the operations manager for AY Transport, also known as Progressive Van Lines, a moving company headquartered in San Jose, California.

Nass admitted to participating in a scheme to extort moving customers by working with a Miami-based moving broker, National Moving Network, to falsely lure customers into moves based upon inaccurate prices, and to subsequently holding customer goods hostage unless the victim paid increased fees. The increased fees for the release of the goods sometimes amounted to two or three times the amount of the original bid provided by National Moving Network.

The scheme, which began in 2003, resulted in losses exceeding $250,000. The final restitution amount remains undetermined and is the subject of a restitution hearing scheduled for May 21, 2014.

Nass is the ninth defendant to be sentenced in connection with the AY Transport/National Moving Network case. On March 5, 2014, Randy Goldberg, the president of the National Moving Network, was also sentenced to 18 months imprisonment as a result of his guilty plea to one count of criminal possession of household goods in violation of 49 U.S.C. § 14915.

The Department of Transportation, Office of Inspector General, and Federal Bureau of Investigation initiated the investigation in 2003 following numerous customer complaints regarding the tactics employed by AY Transport and National Moving Network.

The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Lucy H. Koh following the defendant’s guilty plea. Judge Koh also sentenced the defendant to a term of 3 years of supervised release. The defendant will begin serving the sentence on June 18, 2014. A separate hearing to determine the restitution amount is scheduled for May 21, 2014 at 9:30 a.m.

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