Arctic Seafood whacked by USD 432,000 in fraudulent crab purchases

A man from the U.S. state of Florida posing as a buyer for Safeway defrauded San Francisco, California, U.S.A.-based Arctic Seafood out of USD 432,000 (EUR 410,000) or more, the U.S. government said in federal court documents.

In early January, David Subil placed an order for Russian king crab from Arctic Seafood, which released the seafood from a Stanwood, Washington, U.S.A.-based North Star Cold facility.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington that Vice President of North Star Cold Storage Linda Boggs informed Snohomish County Sheriff’s Deputy Klaxon that one of her customers, Alexander Gorelik, owner of Arctic Seafoods, was the victim of fraud.

Arctic Seafoods did not respond to a request for comment.

Gorelik authorized the release of two shipments of Russian king crab from the North Star Cold Storage facility on 18 and 20 January and January, 2023, to Subil, who identified himself as Christoher Delgado, according to court documents.

Delgado, Jennifer Zavala, and Bridget Wood were named as alias's of Subil. The individuals contacted Gorelik from the following addresses: [email protected] and [email protected]. They are not authentic Safeway email accounts, according to the charging documents.

Gorelik received documents to open an account with what he thought was Albertson’s – Safeway’s parent company – and received a vendor number.

Gorelik also received a second order for around USD 260,000 (EUR 247,000) worth of crab.

After receiving two purchase orders and believing they were legitimately from Safeway, Gorelik authorized the release of the product from North Star Cold Storage in Stanwood for both purchases. However, after the second order, Gorelik realized he had overcharged the buyer and attempted to contact the buyer by phone but was unable to reach Subil or any of the aliases.

As a result, Gorelik called Albertson’s Director of Seafood Anthony Snow, and discovered the people he had been communicating with did not work at Safeway or Albertson’s.

“Gorelik was informed by Anthony Snow the purchase orders were fake, and that Arctic Seafood was not set up as a vendor for Safeway or Albertson’s,” the government said.

Meanwhile, one of Arctic’s Florida customers called Gorelik on 21 February, saying he received an email from the Bob Interian, founder Hialeah, Florida, U.S.A.-based Jomara Seafood, offering to sell him product that looked like Arctic-brand crab that were priced well below market value.

A government investigator informed Interian the crab was stolen. He claimed he was unaware, and provided detectives with an invoice from Global Supply P&P, the company from which he purchased the crab. Global Supply P&P was an active Florida company, created by Subil in September 2020, which has an address listed at a UPS store in Miami.

Interian transferred USD 144,750 (EUR 137,194) to Global Supply P & P Inc., and said he paid USD 25.00 (EUR 23.69) per pound for 6/9 and 4/7 king crab and USD 23.00 (EUR 21.80) per pound for the 9/12 king crab.

Subil had booked a flight to Colombia in an attempt to escape authorities before he was arrested in South Florida on 21 February, 20201. Court documents show he is no longer in custody, according to the Daily Beast.

Subil has a long criminal history, including convictions for grand theft and fraud. In two prior instances, he has purchased seafood and meat with counterfeit checks, including an attempt to swindle USD 60,000 worth of shrimp from a Florida distributor. In this case, Subil is charged with three counts of interstate transportation of stolen property.

Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of Homeland Security