Investigations

On February 17, 2022, Matthew Pardi, Ashley Lynn Hars, and Pardi's wholly owned corporation, Proud American Vanlines, LLC (formerly known as Moving Accounting Department, LLC) were indicted by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for wire fraud, interstate transportation of property obtained by fraud, and aggravated identity theft in connection with a household goods moving company fraud scheme.

 

The indictment alleges that from 2015 to 2019, the defendants created a series of online profiles for moving companies by stealing the identities of legitimate companies. The defendants falsely claimed that the companies were family owned and had existed for over a decade with over a thousand satisfied customers. The defendants created five-star reviews on their own websites as well as legitimate review websites, such as the Better Business Bureau and Yelp!, to try to trick customers into booking their moving services and making deposits. The defendants also violated Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations by increasing fee estimates after booking customers and refusing to deliver household goods unless the customers paid the higher prices. As a result of the scheme, the defendants fraudulently obtained over $12 million.