A Florida man is facing federal charges after he allegedly stole over half a million dollars worth of crab by pretending to be a grocery store worker in Washington.
David Subil, 51, of Miami, is accused of fraudulently ordering more than $728,000 of crab from a wholesaler while pretending to be multiple employees of a Safeway grocery store in Stanwood, Wash., about 50 miles north of Seattle, according to federal prosecutors.
Prosecutors say he ordered hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of King Crab and Opilio crab in multiple orders.
Court documents say Subil allegedly posed as a Safeway worker named Christopher Delgado and sent fake purchase orders to Arctic Seafoods, a California-based seafood company, which sent the seafood to North Star Cold Storage in Stanwood.
“On or about Jan. 3, a coconspirator fraudulently represented himself as an employee from a national grocery corporation placing an order for seafood and convinced Artic Seafood to release $432,000 worth of Russian King Crab from a North Star Cold Facility, located in Snohomish County, to David Subil and his associates,” charging documents say.
The U.S. district court says Subil then rented a “Ryder” truck to pick up the crab order, but payments never went through.
Deputies tracked Subil down at a weigh station, and found out he sold some of the stolen seafood to another company in South Florida.
Subil was arrested for a similar scheme in 2013.
According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Subil was arrested for posing as a seafood buyer and causing about $200,000 in losses to seafood businesses in Florida and Alabama. He was arrested for two counts of bank fraud, one count of grand theft, one count of attempted grand theft, one count of obtaining property by false personation, two counts of organized schemes to defraud and six counts of wire fraud.
Documents say he tried to flee to Columbia by purchasing a one-way plane ticket.
He is facing charges of conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property.
Subil’s seafood scheme began around the end of Jan. and went on to the end of Feb., court documents say.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.