Great Lakes Wire

LANSING – Yesterday, Nicholas Mui, 22, of Grand Haven, pled guilty to one count of Conducting a Criminal Enterprise in the 17th Circuit Court in Kent County for the systemic theft and sale of account access information tied to mPerks accounts, announced Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. With his plea, Mui will forfeit his computer tower and approximately $630,000 in frozen cryptocurrency and cash.

mPerks is the loyalty and rewards incentive program offered by the Meijer grocery chain wherein customers accrue store-credit points into their individual accounts by making purchases at the grocer. The points accrued can be used as cash-value towards purchases. Customers establish their own individual accounts to participate in the loyalty program and these are maintained by Meijer.

Meijer customers and mPerks account holders had their mPerks accounts compromised, with login credentials sold online, and their accrued purchase points stolen and used fraudulently. Mui obtained login credentials from a separate data breach, cross-referenced those credentials for access success with the mPerks infrastructure, and then sold those login credentials on the internet for wrongful use by buyers. The purchasers of the login credentials then used the points balance to fund their own purchases from Meijer, with incidents documented for both online and in-store purchases.

Meijer was alerted to these thefts by consumer complaints to the company in April and May of 2023. The customers complained of vanishing points on their accounts, prompting Meijer to contact the Fraud Investigation Section of the Michigan State Police. A joint investigation commenced, comprised of Meijer corporate investigators, the Michigan State Police Fraud Investigation Section, and the FORCE Team. Mui was arrested and arraigned in January following the investigation.

Meijer has reinstated the full previous balance of accrued points to affected customers suffering verified thefts at a corporate loss currently calculated to exceed $1 million.

“I commend the hard work and dedication of the FORCE team, Michigan State Police, and Meijer that led to this conviction,” Nessel said. “Their complex investigation has been instrumental in securing hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution and safeguarding a loyalty program used by many across our state.”

Sentencing is scheduled for September 5th at 1:30 p.m. before Judge Trusock in 17th Circuit Court in Kent County.

The FORCE Team and Organized Retail Crime Unit were established in January 2023 by the Attorney General to target criminal organizations that steal products from retailers to repackage and sell for profit. Two assistant attorneys general serve on the FORCE Team full-time, working with special agents within the Department of Attorney General and Michigan State Police detectives to investigate and prosecute these crimes. The unit also partners with FBI’s Detroit Fraud and Financial Crimes Task Force and Postal Inspection Service. This is a first-in-the-nation unit unique among states as being staffed with dedicated personnel from within a state attorney general's office.

The FORCE Team collaborates with retailers and local law enforcement agencies to combat organized retail crime. FORCE stands for Focused Organized Retail Crime Enforcement. Recent corporate partners on investigations have included Sam’s Club/Walmart, Meijer, Target, Home Depot, TJ Maxx, Rite Aid Lululemon Ulta Beauty Lowe’s

Local law enforcement agencies or retailers with evidence of organized retail fraud are encouraged to email FORCE Team.

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