Two siblings who allegedly operated as kingpins of a major Manhattan retail theft fencing ring found themselves indicted this week.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg unveiled Wednesday the indictments against 40-year-old Aaron Khan and his sister, 54-year-old Bibi Rehana Khan for the million-dollar theft ring.
Aaron Khan was escorted on May 8 through the halls of Manhattan Criminal Court in cuffs he attempted to hide his face from the flash of press cameras. Bibi Rehana Khan who was arraigned the day before. Both stand accused of serving as fences for shoplifters who have run roughshod over Manhattan storefronts.
“Solely focusing on individual shoplifters does not capture or reveal the full scope of the scourge of retail theft, there’s a shadow network of fencing operations,” Bragg said.
Rehana’s Cosmetics, a Flatiron District beauty store located at 870 6th Ave., is allegedly the central hub of that shadow network. It is alleged that the business bought stolen goods from large retail chains like CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens in about 450 cardboard boxes found on the premises.
Investigators also discovered $212,000 worth of stolen property from Macy’s.
“Rehana’s Cosmetics was well known to shoplifters, who would willingly bring them stolen items. We allege that created a motive for shoplifters to steal and thus that the defendants we allege were drivers of crime,” Bragg said.
The Big Apple has famously faced a scourge of shoplifting over the past several years — leading many businesses to lock up their products behind plexiglass. Other major chains, such as Rite Aid, have shut down numerous New York City locations, blaming shoplifting as one of the primary reasons for the closure.
While Bragg himself acknowledged that most crimes have continued to drop over the past year, he said shoplifting remains a prevalent trend that puts workers at risk of assaults. His office is also concentrating on building prolific cases against shoplifters and their co-conspirators, pursuing them on multiple charges rather than just every individual petty theft — to get more of these thieves off the streets and behind bars.
Bragg charged that the Khan siblings were motivated purely and simply by greed.
“They were doing this to make money, it is the motive as old as time,” Bragg said.
Both Khans were ordered to hand over their passports, and are expected back in court next month.
