A former Amazon employee is facing charges of stealing nearly 2,000 pairs of work boots and sneakers through a program meant to provide free safety footwear to new employees of the online retailer.
On Wednesday, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Asraf Mohamed, 33, of Brookyln was charged with grand larceny and possession of stolen property. In a statement, the District Attorney stated that Mohamed allegedly created accounts in the names of new employees without their knowledge and obtained 1,838 pairs of work boots and sneakers, later reselling them online.
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Mohamed was arraigned on Tuesday night on a criminal complaint charging him with grand larceny in the second degree and criminal possession of stolen property in the second degree. Queens Criminal Court Judge Jerry Iannece ordered him to return to court Sept. 16. If convicted of the top count, he faces a maximum sentence of five to 15 years in prison.
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When contacted by FN, an Amazon representative declined to comment further since it’s an ongoing case.
District Attorney Katz said in a statement that Mohamed “took advantage of his position” at Amazon to gather information on fellow workers, “compromising their safety” to line his own pockets.
“Retail theft, whether against mom-and-pop shops or large corporations, hurts all consumers as it causes prices to rise,” Katz stated. “I thank the prosecutors of my dedicated Frauds Bureau and our law enforcement partners for their work on this long-term investigation.”
Katz added that, according to the charges and investigation, Mohamed worked at an Amazon facility on Grand Avenue in Maspeth, N.Y. from July 2020 to Sept. 2023, when he was terminated. In his role, he was responsible for training new drivers and had access to a national database of new employees.
Between Nov. 12, 2022, and June 9, 2023, Mohamed allegedly created 1,838 unique accounts with Zappos.com, an Amazon subsidiary, using the information of new employees through an Amazon program called Zappos at Work. The program was designed to provide workers with a free pair of work boots or sneakers to be worn on the job.
A total of 79 shoe orders were delivered to Mohamed’s residential address, and another 1,759 orders were delivered to his brother’s address in Queens. The footwear brands included Timberland, Dr. Martens, Wolverine, Carhartt, New Balance and Brooks.
Mohamed allegedly sold the shoes, which had a total retail value of $224,834, on eBay.
Launched in 2018, Zappos at Work is a business-to-business platform that partners with major corporations to help their employees shop workwear from brands that meets their unique requirements. It now has over 50 enterprise clients, such as Delta Airlines and Amazon, and participating safety footwear brands include Carhartt, Merrell, Timberland Pro, Reebok Work, Rocky, Keen Utility, Skechers and dozens more.
Aside from a wider selection, there are other benefits as well. Customers shopping through Zappos at Work can accumulate points to use on the site for future personal purchases. The platform also offers an average partnership discount of 10 percent for large enterprise clients, which, when combined with a uniform stipend, can stretch an employee’s purchasing power.