LANSING – Yesterday, Nicholas Mui, 22, of Grand Haven, was sentenced to 5-20 years’ incarceration for the systemic theft and sale of account access information tied to mPerks accounts, announced Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. Mui, who pled guilty to one count of Conducting a Criminal Enterprise in July, also forfeited his computer tower and approximately $611,000 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 the wrongful use of 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.
“The tireless efforts of the FORCE team, Michigan State Police, and Meijer have not only secured a significant sentence and restitution but may have also prevented further harm to businesses and consumers across our state,” Nessel said. “My FORCE Team remains dedicated to working with retail partners to hold accountable those who commit organized retail crimes and creating an overall safer shopping experience.”
Meijer has reinstated the full previous balance of accrued points to affected customers suffering verified thefts, at a corporate loss currently calculated to exceed $1,000,000.
The FORCE Team and the 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 a profit. Two assistant attorneys general serve 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 the FBI’s Detroit Fraud and Financial Crimes Task Force and the Postal Inspection Service. This is a first-in-the-nation unit, unique in the 50 states as being the first such unit with embedded, dedicated staff from the Department of Attorney General.
The FORCE Team is dedicated to working collaboratively with retailers and local law enforcement agencies to combat organized retail crime. FORCE is an acronym that 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, Amazon, and Lowe’s.
Local law enforcement agencies or retailers with evidence of organized retail fraud are encouraged to email the FORCE Team.
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