Connect with us

Published

on

Amazon fulfillment center in Eastvale, California on Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021.

MediaNews Group | The Riverside Press-Enterprise via Getty Images

Of the many acts that can get an Amazon merchant kicked off the site, few are as devastating as selling stolen goods. Amazon calls the behavior “illegal and strictly prohibited,” and those accused of such activity can be permanently suspended.

Dozens of small businesses have been booted from Amazon in recent months for purportedly hawking stolen goods from home appliance brands such as Breville, Keurig, Levoit and SharkNinja. But suspended sellers, who spent years building their businesses on Amazon, told CNBC they had no idea they were selling stolen products.

Amazon has provided limited evidence to back up its claims, sellers said, leaving them scrambling to find the problematic merchandise. To try to get reinstated and save their million-dollar business from potential collapse, they’ve taken it upon themselves to discover if they unsuspectingly bought stolen goods from one of the many wholesalers, closeout businesses and distributors that supply their Amazon inventory.

Amazon’s marketplace of independent sellers accounts for over 60% of goods sold on the platform. It’s such a dominant force in e-commerce that it’s often the primary or even sole source of revenue for third-party sellers. Over the past decade, the rapid growth of the marketplace has fueled a parallel boom in counterfeiters and spammers trying to game the system, pushing Amazon to ramp up enforcement. 

Retailers, lawmakers and trade groups have repeatedly called attention to the growth of organized retail crime, saying that online marketplaces have contributed to the problem. Amazon’s recent crackdown serves as acknowledgment by the company that criminals are attempting to use the site as an outlet for illicitly obtained products.

While sellers can get suspended for any number of behaviors, from promoting unsafe or expired goods to providing bad customer experience and using inaccurate product descriptions, no allegation is harder to overcome than being labeled a seller of stolen items. Those merchants say Amazon has little interest in offering them second chances or much of an opportunity to defend themselves. 

CNBC spoke with six sellers who were recently suspended. Each provided us with the names of their suppliers. A review of their invoices, communications with suppliers and other documentation revealed a convoluted web of wholesale and liquidation companies that frequently overlapped, and advertised similar products, including espresso machines from Breville, Keurig coffee makers, Levoit humidifiers, LG computer monitors, Shark mops and vacuums, and Ninja appliances.

In an email to CNBC, Amazon said it’s working with authorities and doesn’t comment “on matters that are the subject of active law enforcement investigations.”

“Amazon does not allow independent sellers to list stolen goods in our store, and we work closely with law enforcement, retailers, and brands to stop bad actors and hold them accountable, including withholding funds, terminating accounts, and making law enforcement referrals,” the company said.

How organized retail crime is fueled by stolen goods on Amazon and Facebook Marketplace

Buying from the ‘youngest Amazon millionaire’

Two years ago, an Amazon seller — we’ll call him Frank — shifted from selling home goods under his own brand to running a wholesale business. With so much competition in the marketplace, he viewed it as safer to sell products consumers know and trust rather than promoting an unfamiliar brand.

On March 14, his thriving three-year-old Amazon business came to a screeching halt. Frank, who asked that we not use his real name out of fear of retribution from Amazon and his suppliers, said that’s the day Amazon told him his account had been suspended for selling stolen goods. 

Frank said Amazon didn’t tell him which of his legions of products were allegedly stolen or offer any details that could help him track down the offenders. If he wanted any shot of appealing the suspension and saving his company, Frank would have to figure it all out himself.

Amazon wouldn’t comment on Frank’s case or any other specific sellers, but the company said in a statement that it regularly requests “invoices, purchase orders, or other proofs of sourcing” if it has concerns about a seller, and has an appeals process for merchants who believe enforcement decisions were erroneous.

One of Frank’s suppliers, according to documents he provided to CNBC, was KZ International, a large wholesale and distribution company owned by Kenzo Sobrie, a successful entrepreneur who has been described as “the youngest Amazon millionaire.”  

When Frank contacted Amazon about his suspension, an account health representative told him that KZ had been placed on an internal list of “risky suppliers.” Amazon declined to say if such a list exists.

In December, KZ’s warehouse in Huntington Beach, California, was raided by the California Highway Patrol, which seized pallets of Dyson vacuums, TP-Link routers, Ninja blenders and Breville espresso machines. A few weeks later, law enforcement carried out a similar raid at the warehouse of one of KZ’s clients. 

KZ sued two of it suppliers in March, claiming they provided the business with stolen goods. CHP ultimately recovered nearly $4 million worth of goods that it determined was “stolen cargo,” according to KZ’s complaint. Separately, Amazon said it shared information and intelligence with CHP in support of the investigation dubbed “Operation Overloaded.”

Frank still isn’t certain if his suspension was tied to products from KZ. His store has been offline for almost four months. Four other merchants suffered a similar fate right around the same time, according to information provided to CNBC. They all said they’d never been notified of selling stolen goods in their years on Amazon, and had no idea which of their products had been flagged or the suppliers who could be responsible. 

Cutthroat competition

Joe Quinlivan, vice president of global robotics, fulfillment and information technology at Amazon.com Inc., speaks during the Delivering the Future event at the Amazon Robotics Innovation Hub in Westborough, Massachusetts, US, on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022. 

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Amazon uses technology to track products from the moment it enters a fulfillment center, scanning for fraud and counterfeits. When it identifies potential problems, the company refers products to investigators and refers cases to law enforcement. For organized retail crime, the company has an internal group called the ORC Engagement Team, consisting of law enforcement professionals.

Amazon’s aggressive recent actions coincide with calls from lawmakers and government agencies to root out stolen goods on the site after a rise in organized shoplifting, which allegedly led to more stolen items on e-commerce platforms. New legislation requires online marketplaces to verify the identity of high-volume sellers in order to prevent fraud. 

Suspensions on Amazon are notoriously difficult to overcome. Sellers told CNBC that they’ve been given the chance to appeal their suspension in a judgment day-style video interview with an Amazon representative, where they can make their case for reinstatement. But it’s a longshot. 

The interview typically lasts about 45 minutes, and sellers are required to provide copies of their driver’s license, tax ID number, invoices, and bank statements, among other documents. Amazon is supposed to notify sellers whether they cleared the interview within five business days. But some merchants say they’re still waiting for an answer weeks after their interview date.

“You start from a guilty-until-proven-innocent standpoint, and then if you can prove that it’s a mistake, it’s possible to get reinstated,” said Chris McCabe, a former Amazon employee who has spent the past nine years helping suspended sellers get back up and running. “These people can’t produce proof, because the items are stolen or the suppliers won’t cooperate and give them proof.” 

‘It’s been devastating’

Amazon sellers are supposed to vet suppliers before they work with them. However, unraveling where the goods came from can be challenging, as it’s common for resold items to be bought and sold by several parties before being purchased by a merchant and listed on Amazon. 

Beyond providing Amazon with receipts and documentation, the sellers say there’s little they can do to resolve the situation. In the meantime, their accounts remain locked, forcing some to lay off their employees or even file for bankruptcy. 

“It’s been devastating to us, truthfully,” said Ricky Sala, who co-owns Oregon Prep Center, which launches and operates Amazon businesses for other companies. “We’re terrified to buy any wholesale products for customers right now because we don’t know what’s stolen, what’s not stolen, or what Amazon is going to say is stolen, even if it’s not stolen.”

Several of the accounts Sala oversees were suspended in recent months, which has cost his business some clients.

One of the main ways suspended sellers from across the country have gotten to know each other and swap stories is through chat groups. They found each other through forums, social media and mutual connections. In June, while sharing details of their suspensions with one another, several of them discovered that they had purchased goods from the same suppliers.

The Los Angeles area, home to two of the busiest trade ports in the country, has emerged as a hotbed for apparent organized retail criminal activity, based on the information provided by suspended sellers.

Several sellers told CNBC that the process of sourcing inventory changed during the Covid pandemic. Because of travel restrictions, they were unable to to meet prospective suppliers at trade shows or at their warehouses, so they would connect over social networks such as Instagram and Facebook, where they resorted to getting virtual tours of inventory. 

Suppliers would nudge sellers to subscribe to their Telegram channel, where they advertise which products they have in stock, and how much they cost. The channels have names like “Amazon wholesales,” “Bulk sales” and “Amazon deals.”

Sala, 28, said a lot of the suppliers he knows who use Telegram’s messaging service are in his age bracket, and prefer blasting notes to their large groups rather than sending mass emails.

“They want to communicate fully on their phone,” Sala said. 

Sellers are encouraged to act fast as the groups can have thousands of members and the offers typically get snapped up quickly. 

A CNBC review of more than a half-dozen such Telegram groups showed consumer electronics and small kitchen appliances were some of the most popular products. Sellers told CNBC they would often order hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of products through these groups.

Even though travel reopened as the pandemic eased, much of the process remained virtual. Sellers who wanted to visit a supplier’s warehouse to check out inventory might find themselves unable to get hot products because competitors would snatch them up. They couldn’t afford to wait.

To manage costs, sellers rarely touch the merchandise. Instead, they rely on distributors to ship products into Amazon’s warehouses, where the e-retailer handles the sorting, packing and preparing of items for delivery through a popular program known as Fulfillment by Amazon, or FBA.  

Inside the rapid growth of Amazon Logistics and how it's taking on third-party shipping

A seller in Miami said in an interview that in the back half of last year, he began working with a handful of new suppliers he’d found on Instagram, hoping to expand into the popular home appliances category. 

The merchant, who asked to remain anonymous, paid over half a million dollars for pallets of air fryers, food processors, and espresso machines, according to invoices and bank statements reviewed by CNBC.  

The documents showed that several of the suppliers claimed to have purchased the items directly from brands or liquidators. The Miami merchant said the suppliers offered the goods at “regular wholesale” prices.

On March 17, Amazon suspended his account for allegedly selling stolen items. In correspondence between the seller and Amazon, the company refused to say which products were in violation. 

He contacted the FBI, hoping law enforcement might be able to help. Officials opened a report, but said there was little they could do without knowing which products were stolen. 

One New York-based merchant said that on May 6, Amazon froze $17,000 worth of “unsuitable inventory,” which an account rep told him signified it was stolen goods. Amazon sent over a list of dozens of products that had violated its policies.

“We have taken this measure because we believe that your account is offering items that are unsuitable and may have been used to engage in deceptive or illegal activity that harms our customers, other selling partners, and our store,” according to a copy of the notice, which was viewed by CNBC. 

The seller tracked down the products and provided as many invoices as he could to Amazon as part of his appeal interview on June 1. He was never suspended, but the inventory remains frozen more than a month later.

Several sellers said they reached out to the attorney general’s office in Amazon’s home state of Washington to raise awareness about what was happening. The attorney general’s office contacted the company in June about the suspensions, sources told CNBC.

Amazon confirmed that it’s in contact with the Washington State Office of the Attorney General on the topic of organized retail crime but didn’t provide details. The attorney general’s office didn’t respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

Tracing the stolen goods supply chain 

In tracing the supply chain for suspended sellers, some patterns started to emerge. 

At least three sellers purchased computer monitors, air fryers and other goods from Ngo Wholesale Distributors, also known as Ngo Trading Co., which has addresses in Santa Fe Springs, part of Los Angeles County, and Garden Grove, just south in Orange County.  

Tien Ngo, the company’s owner, told CNBC in an interview that he has purchased products from other southern California suppliers, including a company named Stride Trading, which is based outside of Los Angeles.

“They said they weren’t stolen goods, but I never looked into their supply chain,” Ngo said, regarding his conversations with the suppliers. “I didn’t want to jeopardize the existing relationship.” 

Stride was listed as a supplier for other suspended sellers who spoke to CNBC. Because Amazon doesn’t provide details on the suppliers, CNBC couldn’t determine if its name has come up repeatedly by coincidence. Stride didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.

A Keurig Green Mountain machine

Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images

One seller said he was told by a Ngo employee that the suspensions were due to the recent CHP crackdown. The employee sent the seller a link to a news report about CHP’s “Operation Overloaded,” in which officers in May arrested more than 40 suspects, and recovered roughly $50 million in stolen merchandise, as well as 20 stolen cargo trailers, multiple firearms and 13 gold bars. 

“Chances are stolen goods or similar ASINs/serial numbers are being bled in to every supply line,” the employee wrote. ASINs refers to the 10-digit code used to look up products on Amazon’s website. 

Complaints filed by KZ, the wholesaler and distributor in Huntington Beach, provide the clearest picture of what happened in the lead-up to the suspensions. 

In late March, KZ sued TV Wholesale Outlet, owned by Los Angeles resident Armen Babayan, alleging it sold the company $3.8 million worth of “illicitly obtained” goods. KZ said it learned the goods were stolen following raids by CHP of its facility. Now KZ is not only unable to sell the products but is also incurring “over $376,000 in shipping and storage fees, removal fees, and reserved inventory charges,” it said.

Additionally, KZ said it “has since become the subject of numerous claims by third-parties whose storefronts have been closed or frozen by Amazon because of the ‘stolen cargo.'” 

Babayan filed a motion to dismiss the complaint on June 14 and disputed KZ’s claims. 

KZ filed a separate lawsuit in May alleging another L.A.-area supplier, Juniper Holdings, sold the company over half a million dollars worth of stolen goods. A portion of those goods was seized by CHP when it raided KZ’s warehouse, the complaint said.  

KZ learned some products were stolen months before the raid, according to the complaint, after a client received a letter from TP-Link warning that routers it had sourced from KZ had been stolen. Juniper told KZ it couldn’t return the merchandise, the complaint said.

Babayan didn’t respond to a request for comment. Juniper CEO Cameron Webb denied the allegations in KZ’s lawsuit.

CNBC reached out to Sobrie, the owner of KZ, numerous times by phone and text at numbers we found for him in California, Florida and New Jersey. He didn’t respond.

The owner of the Huntington Beach property that was raided by law enforcement declined to provide a comment but acknowledged that raids had occurred and said Sobrie’s company was no longer a tenant.

Kevin Cole, Sobrie’s attorney, didn’t provide answers to questions about his client’s business activities or relationship to Amazon, writing in an email that “the allegations in our lawsuits speak for themselves.”

Sobrie is well known in Amazon reseller circles. He’s been profiled for his success selling wholesale goods on the site and can be seen in Instagram posts posing in luxury vehicles and sharing e-commerce business advice. 

Sobrie now runs a new wholesale company in New Jersey, KN Trading LLC, according to business records filed in the state. Its Telegram channel, which has over 1,100 subscribers, buzzes with new deals almost daily. A recent video posted on its Instagram page shows a warehouse stacked with boxes of goods, and employees loading packages onto UPS trucks. The caption reads, “Ready to boost your Amazon business? KN Trading is the partner you need!”

Meanwhile, the suspended sellers remain desperate for answers as they burn through cash. They’re almost certain to miss out on Prime Day, Amazon’s annual deal event, scheduled for next week, and can only hope they can get up and running in time to prepare for the holidays, the time of year when many retailers finally turn a profit. 

In the group chat, they check in with each other almost daily, swapping tips for their appeal interviews, looking for any way to increase their chances of getting their accounts back. 

One of them wrote in a recent message, “I’m praying we all get great news very soon and this will be a story that ended well.”

WATCH: Amazon shares move down over FTC’s antitrust case

Amazon shares slide over FTC's antitrust case

Continue Reading

Technology

USDC stablecoin issuer Circle files for IPO as public markets open to crypto

Published

on

By

USDC stablecoin issuer Circle files for IPO as public markets open to crypto

Jeremy Allaire, Co-Founder and CEO, Circle 

David A. Grogan | CNBC

Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, has filed for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The S1 lays the groundwork for Circle’s long-anticipated entry into the public markets.

While the filing does not yet disclose the number of shares or a price range, sources told Fortune that Circle plans to move forward with a public filing in late April and is targeting a market debut as early as June.

JPMorgan Chase and Citi are reportedly serving as lead underwriters, and the company is seeking a valuation between $4 billion and $5 billion, according to Fortune.

This marks Circle’s second attempt at going public. A prior SPAC merger with Concord Acquisition Corp collapsed in late 2022 amid regulatory challenges. Since then, Circle has made strategic moves to position itself closer to the heart of global finance — including the announcement last year that it would relocate its headquarters from Boston to One World Trade Center in New York City.

Read more about tech and crypto from CNBC Pro

Circle is best known as the issuer of USDC, the world’s second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization.

Pegged one-to-one to the U.S. dollar and backed by cash and short-term Treasury securities, USDC has roughly $60 billion in circulation.

Circle is best known as the issuer of USDC, the world’s second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization.

Pegged one-to-one to the U.S. dollar and backed by cash and short-term Treasury securities, USDC has roughly $60 billion in circulation. It makes up about 26% of the total market cap for stablecoins, behind Tether‘s 67% dominance. Its market cap has grown 36% this year, however, compared with Tether’s 5% growth.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said on the company’s most recent earnings call that it has a “stretch goal to make USDC the number 1 stablecoin.” 

The company’s push into public markets reflects a broader moment for the crypto industry, which is navigating renewed political favor under a more crypto-friendly U.S. administration. The stablecoin sector is ramping up as the industry grows increasingly confident that the crypto market will get its first piece of U.S. legislation passed and implemented this year, focusing on stablecoins.

Stablecoins’ growth could have investment implications for crypto exchanges like Robinhood and Coinbase as they integrate more of them into crypto trading and cross-border transfers. Coinbase also has an agreement with Circle to share 50% of the revenue of its USDC stablecoin.

The stablecoin market has grown about 11% so far this year and about 47% in the past year, and has become a “systemically important” part of the crypto market, according to Bernstein. Historically, digital assets in this sector have been used for trading and as collateral in decentralized finance (DeFi), and crypto investors watch them closely for evidence of demand, liquidity and activity in the market.

More recently, however, rhetoric around stablecoins’ ability to help preserve U.S. dollar dominance – by exporting dollar utility internationally and ensuring demand for U.S. government debt, which backs nearly all dollar-denominated stablecoins – has grown louder.

A successful IPO would make Circle one of the most prominent crypto-native firms to list on a U.S. exchange — an important signal for both investors and regulators as digital assets become more entwined with the traditional financial system.

Continue Reading

Technology

Hims & Hers shares rise as company adds new weight-loss medications to platform

Published

on

By

Hims & Hers shares rise as company adds new weight-loss medications to platform

The Hims app arranged on a smartphone in New York on Feb. 12, 2025.

Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Hims & Hers Health shares closed up 5% on Tuesday after the company announced patients can access Eli Lilly‘s weight loss medication Zepbound and diabetes drug Mounjaro, as well as the generic injection liraglutide, through its platform.

Zepbound, Mounjaro and liraglutide are part of the class of weight loss medications called GLP-1s, which have exploded in popularity in recent years. Hims & Hers launched a weight loss program in late 2023, but its GLP-1 offerings have evolved as the company has contended with a volatile supply and regulatory environment.

Lilly’s weekly injections Zepbound and Mounjaro will cost patients $1,899 a month, according to the Hims & Hers website. The generic liraglutide will cost $299 a month, but it requires a daily injection and can be less effective than other GLP-1 medications.

“As we look ahead, we plan to continue to expand our weight loss offering to deliver an even more holistic, personalized experience,” Dr. Craig Primack, senior vice president of weight loss at Hims & Hers, wrote in a blog post.

A Lilly spokesperson said in a statement that the company has “no affiliation” with Hims & Hers and noted that Zepbound is available at lower costs for people who are insured for the product or for those who buy directly from the company. 

In May, Hims & Hers started prescribing compounded semaglutide, the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk‘s GLP-1 weight loss medications Ozempic and Wegovy. The offering was immensely popular and helped generate more than $225 million in revenue for the company in 2024.

But compounded drugs can traditionally only be mass produced when the branded medications treatments are in shortage. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced in February that the shortage of semaglutide injections products had been resolved.

That meant Hims & Hers had to largely stop offering the compounded medications, though some consumers may still be able to access personalized doses if it’s clinically applicable. 

During the company’s quarterly call with investors in February, Hims & Hers said its weight loss offerings will primarily consist of its oral medications and liraglutide. The company said it expects its weight loss offerings to generate at least $725 million in annual revenue, excluding contributions from compounded semaglutide.

But the company is still lobbying for compounded medications. A pop up on Hims & Hers’ website, which was viewed by CNBC, encourages users to “use your voice” and urge Congress and the FDA to preserve access to compounded treatments.

With Tuesday’s rally, Hims and Hers shares are up about 27% in 2025 after soaring 172% last year.

WATCH: Hims & Hers shares tumble over concerns around weight-loss business

Hims & Hers shares tumble over concerns around weight-loss business

Continue Reading

Technology

Meta’s head of AI research announces departure

Published

on

By

Meta's head of AI research announces departure

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg holds a smartphone as he makes a keynote speech at the Meta Connect annual event at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Sept. 25, 2024.

Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters

Meta’s head of artificial intelligence research announced Tuesday that she will be leaving the company. 

Joelle Pineau, the company’s vice president of AI research, announced her departure in a LinkedIn post, saying her last day at the social media company will be May 30. 

Her departure comes at a challenging time for Meta. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made AI a top priority, investing billions of dollars in an effort to become the market leader ahead of rivals like OpenAI and Google.

Zuckerberg has said that it is his goal for Meta to build an AI assistant with more than 1 billion users and artificial general intelligence, which is a term used to describe computers that can think and take actions comparable to humans.

“As the world undergoes significant change, as the race for AI accelerates, and as Meta prepares for its next chapter, it is time to create space for others to pursue the work,” Pineau wrote. “I will be cheering from the sidelines, knowing that you have all the ingredients needed to build the best AI systems in the world, and to responsibly bring them into the lives of billions of people.”

Vice President of AI Research and Head of FAIR at Meta Joelle Pineau attends a technology demonstration at the META research laboratory in Paris on February 7, 2025.

Stephane De Sakutin | AFP | Getty Images

Pineau was one of Meta’s top AI researchers and led the company’s fundamental AI research unit, or FAIR, since 2023. There, she oversaw the company’s cutting-edge computer science-related studies, some of which are eventually incorporated into the company’s core apps. 

She joined the company in 2017 to lead Meta’s Montreal AI research lab. Pineau is also a computer science professor at McGill University, where she is a co-director of its reasoning and learning lab.

Some of the projects Pineau helped oversee include Meta’s open-source Llama family of AI models and other technologies like the PyTorch software for AI developers.

Pineau’s departure announcement comes a few weeks ahead of Meta’s LlamaCon AI conference on April 29. There, the company is expected to detail its latest version of Llama. Meta Chief Product Officer Chris Cox, to whom Pineau reported to, said in March that Llama 4 will help power AI agents, the latest craze in generative AI. The company is also expected to announce a standalone app for its Meta AI chatbot, CNBC reported in February

“We thank Joelle for her leadership of FAIR,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. “She’s been an important voice for Open Source and helped push breakthroughs to advance our products and the science behind them.” 

Pineau did not reveal her next role but said she “will be taking some time to observe and to reflect, before jumping into a new adventure.”

WATCH: Meta awaits antitrust fine from EU

Meta awaits antitrust fine from EU

Continue Reading

Trending