A Georgia man was sentenced to prison for his involvement in a scheme to obtain inside information from Amazon employees, according to the Department of Justice.
Hadis Nuhanovic, 32, was sentenced to 20 months in prison.
Nuhanovic used inside information to break the Amazon Marketplace platform, to increase some sellers’ income to the detriment of others.
“This was a long-running global conspiracy that not only harmed businesses selling on Amazon, it also harmed customers who purchased products unaware that they were counterfeit or the subject of customer complaints,” said U.S. Attorney Nick Brown. “Mr. Nuhanovic and his coconspirators bribed Amazon employees to reinstate banned products, or to remove bad reviews. Even after Amazon fired one of the coconspirators, Mr. Nuhanovic didn’t stop, he just recruited and bribed more employees for his and his coconspirators’ benefit.”
According to the Department of Justice, Nuhanovic operated as an Amazon seller since 2010, selling things such as DVDs and smartphone cases.
From 2017 to 2018, Nuhanovic paid more than $20,000 in bribes for inside information from an Amazon employee. That information not only gave him a competitive advantage with his business, but he sold that information to others.
Nuhanovic also recruited other Amazon employees that also accepted bribes.
The bribes helped Nuhanovic to sell counterfeit DVDs, by using real invoices provided by insiders instead of his forged invoices, which he used to claim he wasn’t selling counterfeit DVDs.
He used similar methods to sell dietary supplements from unapproved suppliers.
Nuhanovic would also use inside information to help clients get reinstated and drum up false accusations against competitors.
He would also seek confidential information on customers who posted bad reviews in order to harass them.
According to the Department of Justice, Nuhanovic also cheated on his taxes, failing to pay nearly $165,000 in taxes from 2018 to 2019.
An Amazon spokesperson sent KIRO 7 the following statement: “We work hard to protect customers, selling partners, and our store from fraud and abuse. We have systems in place to detect suspicious behavior, and teams who investigate and stop prohibited activity. Amazon is grateful to have worked with federal authorities in their thorough pursuit of this case. There is no place for fraud at Amazon, and we will continue to hold bad actors accountable.”
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