Great Lakes Wire

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has announced that the FORCE Team has charged Ali F. Habash, 28, and Ahmed Al-Bahia, 22, both of Canton, for allegedly defrauding Amazon of more than $50,000. The defendants were arraigned in the 35th District Court in Plymouth, with Al-Bahia on July 24 and Habash on July 29.

Habash faces six counts of False Pretenses: $1,000 or More but Less Than $20,000, one count of Uttering and Publishing, one count of Forgery, and one count of Continuing a Criminal Enterprise—a 20-year felony. Al-Bahia has been charged with one count of False Pretenses: $1,000 or More but Less Than $20,000.

The Department was contacted by Amazon’s internal investigations division in February after the company identified 32 accounts allegedly engaging in retail fraud linked to Habash. He is accused of using these accounts between 2020 and 2023 to place orders for high-value products such as Apple brand laptops and gold coins while fraudulently requesting refunds yet keeping the merchandise to re-sell for profit. The alleged scheme involved requesting return authorization and either shipping materially different items of lesser value or failing to ship anything back to Amazon. According to Amazon and the investigation by the Attorney General’s FORCE Team, Habash and Al-Bahia collaborated on another instance of alleged fraud in 2021 that resulted in thousands of dollars in losses.

“This case involves both massive sums of money and an online retailer familiar to all Michigan consumers,” said Nessel. “Refund process manipulation resulting in effectively freely obtained merchandise to be re-sold for a profit is no less a crime than physical push-out thefts or simple shoplifting. I appreciate Amazon’s cooperation in identifying this scheme and working with us to hold these individuals accountable.”

“Large-scale refund fraud is a form of organized retail crime (ORC) that Amazon and many retailers have faced for years,” said Kathy Sheehan, Amazon VP of Business Conduct & Ethics. “Amazon addresses this issue head-on through tools that use machine learning models to detect and prevent fraud as well as employing specialized teams dedicated to detecting, investigating, and stopping fraud.”

Habash will next appear in court for a Probable Cause Conference on August 9. Al-Bahia is set to appear before the same court on August 2.

The FORCE Team and the Organized Retail Crime Unit were established in January 2023 by the Attorney General's office to target criminal organizations stealing products from retailers for resale. Two assistant attorneys general serve full-time on the FORCE Team alongside special agents within the Department of Attorney General and Michigan State Police detectives. The unit also partners with FBI’s Detroit Fraud and Financial Crimes Task Force and Postal Inspection Service.

The FORCE Team collaborates with retailers like Sam’s Club/Walmart, Meijer, Target, Home Depot, TJ Maxx, Rite-Aid, Lululemon, Ulta Beauty, Lowe’s among others.

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

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