Bay Area Resident Convicted in Retail Theft Crime Ring
Defendant Sentenced for his Conviction on Conspiracy to Transport Stolen Property and Structuring Transactions

OAKLAND, CA—Hassan Swaid was sentenced today to 78 months in prison 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, United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello announced.

Swaid, 40, of Fremont, Calif., was convicted on June 24, 2009, following a six week jury trial. Evidence presented at the trial showed that Swaid was the president, chief executive officer and owner of Rosemont Wholesale, Inc., from 1998 through February 2007. Swaid paid more than $9 million dollars for stolen goods and then shipped the stolen goods to out-of-state customers. Swaid was involved in a criminal ring that purchased merchandise that 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 Wal-Mart. Rosemont then sold the goods over the Internet and shipped them to other states.

According the evidence, 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. The jury determined that Swaid had structured his payments to his illegal sources 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 of over-the-counter medications, baby formula, and personal hygiene products. Twelve trailer loads of merchandise were seized from Rosemont’s warehouse.

The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Court Judge D. Lowell Jensen. Judge Jensen also sentenced the defendant to a three year period of supervised release. The defendant was 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
• 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 and to structure, 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 structure 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.

This prosecution stems from a nearly two and one-half year investigation by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Oakland Police Department.

Keslie Stewart and Maureen Bessette are the Assistant U.S. Attorneys who are prosecuting the case with the assistance of Legal Assistants Katie Turner and Cynthia Daniels and victim-witness advocate Deborah Kusber.

Further Information:

Case #: CR07-00126DLJ

A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Web site at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.

Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

Judges’ calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court’s Web site at www.cand.uscourts.gov.

All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be directed to Jack Gillund at (415) 436-6599 or by e-mail at Jack.Gillund@usdoj.gov.