25-03-2025
Three South Florida movers will pay $3.8M for a ‘moving brokerage scheme,' state says
Three South Florida men who disguised their moving broker firms as actual moving companies have been kicked out of business and ordered to pay over $3.8 million.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier's office announced the five judgments that did the above on Friday, two weeks after the largest and last judgment came down in a Broward County court. The money will come out of the pockets of Daniel Metz and Rudolph Rice of Coral Springs and Lake Worth Beach's Charles Abrams, the men accused of violating the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
'Moving brokers are sales teams that book your move and sell it to an actual moving company,' the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration says on the 'Movers vs. Brokers' part of its website. 'A moving broker is not a mover. A broker does not assume responsibility for, and is not authorized to transport, your household goods. Brokers do not have moving trucks or professional movers.'
According to Uthmeier's office, Abrams, Metz and Rice portrayed their companies as the ones doing the heavy lifting of furniture and goods. But, they were just brokers, throwing out low quotes, snagging the deposits, then outsourcing the work to other movers without customers' knowledge. The actual movers then might make their own demands for payment.
READ MORE: A $60,000 judgment Florida mover Shawn Thompson, accused of fraud and extortion
'The companies serially changed names when bad reviews made it difficult to attract new customers,' the attorney general's office said in its release.
In addition to Gold Standard Moving, based in a Lauderhill office building, the trio used Southeast Holding, based out of Abrams' house; Executive Van Lines, based in a St. Petersburg office building; Imperial Moving Group doing business as Simple Van Lines, out of a Boca Raton strip mall; National American Van Lines, out of Lauderdale by the Sea; and Razor Van Lines, Spartan Moving and Storage, Southeast Holdings, United American Moving and US Pro Moving and Logistics, all in offices at Pompano Beach's Palm Aire Plaza, 2700 W. Atlantic Blvd.
(Palm Aire Plaza's the same strip mall from which Johanna Garcia ran the $200 million MJ Capital fraud.)
READ MORE: A list of the companies used by a Florida mover with a record of fraud and extortion
Punishment and payments
The judgments' permanent injunctions bans Abrams, Rice and Metz from having anything to do with any business or person 'that provides a service as a household moving broker.'
As for how much this will cost the men and their companies...
National American Van Lines: $65,000 in restitution, $10,000 in penalty.
Daniel Metz: $202,208 for 'consumer relief.'
Rudolph Rice: $89,915 for 'consumer relief.'
Imperial Moving Group or Simple Path Moving: $20,000 for 'consumer relief.'
Charles Abrams: $400,000 for 'consumer relief.'
Gold Standard Moving; Executive Van Lines; Razor Van Lines; Spartan Moving and Storage; Southeast Holding; Southeast Holdings; United American Moving and US Pro Moving and Logistics: $1,519,000 for 'corporate consumer relief' and $1.5 million in penalty.
