Three Scammers Sentenced To 18 Years In Prison For Multi-Million Dollar Baby Formula Scheme

Johnny Grobman, 48, Raoul Doekhie, 53, and his wife Sherida Nabi, 57, were sentenced to 18 years in prison last week. All three, from Florida, were involved in an extensive multi-million dollar baby formula operation.

Not only will they have to serve time, but Grobman must pay $115 million to the Feds. At the same time, Doekhie and Nabi,  together, must give the Feds $87 million.

Edgar Torres, the 61-year-old president of Le Mare Transport, is said to have helped with the operation. Before the trial started, he pleaded guilty to wire fraud.

Court documents note that the three that were sentenced ran an operation for five years. It involved creating fake documents and exporting papers to Doekhie’s homeland of Suriname.

From 2013 to 2018, they were given countless discounts from US manufacturers. This was for infant formula, eye-care products, and other FDA-montitored items.

The fraudulent documents stated that the childcare products were going to Suriname. This is one of the most poverty-stricken countries, per capita, in the world. This is why discounts were provided.

In actuality, Grobman, Doekhie, and Nabi were making the products available for purchase in the U.S. without a discounted price. The money was then distributed between the three of them.

In order to deceive officials, sometimes the trio would send “dummy shipments.” Those orders didn’t have the items that were noted in the manifest. Sometimes, they would also send products overseas temporarily and then have them sent back to the U.S.

They would also make fake documents used to make it seem like the items were sent to Suriname.

The operation was uncovered after a trucker noticed something wasn’t right with the shipments and contacted authorities. Grobman then blamed the trucker and President Trump, through text messages, for them getting caught.

“We have worked 12+ years with minimal issues… I understand every time we lose some line, it affects us all. However, this is out of control, that a driver talks, these are the kind of morons that elected our current president,” Grobman wrote in 2017.

The Feds have called the scheme a part of the “gray market.” That is when goods are re-sold that weren’t supposed to be for purchase in the U.S.

In May 2019, the trio had first been apprehended. In 2020, they were found guilty of wire fraud, money laundering, theft of pre-retail medical products, and smuggling goods from the U.S.

Documents note that Grobman will have to hand over his $5.2 million home that was bought by him and his wife in 2013. Doekhie and Nabi will have to hand over their three bedroom condo, in Fort Lauderdale, to the Feds.