Michelle Mack was taken into custody on December 6, 2023.
CNBC
The leader of a nationwide organized retail crime operation targeting ultimate beauty and other major retailers face more than five years in California prisons.
Michelle Mack, of Bonsall, Calif., was placed on probation for five years and four months, with her sentence set to be formalized in January. On Thursday, a San Diego County Superior Court judge announced that
Her husband, Kenneth, was sentenced to the same sentence and is currently incarcerated. As part of the plea agreement, he will be released after a year and then undergo probation and community service for the remainder of his sentence.
The judge allowed Mack to serve her sentence after her husband was released so she could care for the children. She was ordered not to leave the state or be near any Ulta or Sephora stores.
The couple must also pay $3 million in restitution to Ulta and Sephora, according to sentencing documents.
Michelle Mack ran her business out of her 4,500-square-foot mansion in Bonsall, outside San Diego, where authorities said she oversaw a network of about a dozen people, from Millions of dollars in merchandise were stolen from Ulta, Sephora and other major retailers.
The Macks pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy to commit a felony and organizing retail theft, petty theft and receiving stolen property.
An attorney for Team Mack declined to comment, NBC 7 San Diego reported.
A CNBC investigation March detailed Mack’s operation and showed how law enforcement tracked stolen items in organized retail rings.
Investigators began calling the theft ring the “California Girls” and believed Mack was the ring’s leader. She made millions by reselling stolen items Amazon Investigators said that before she and her husband were arrested in December, she sold products to unsuspecting customers through an “online cosmetics store” for a fraction of the typical retail price.
Sales records provided by Amazon to investigators show that since 2012, Mack had sold nearly $8 million in cosmetics through the store before it closed, and she brought in $1.89 million in revenue in 2022 alone.
The website was shut down after the December arrests.
Earlier this year, Ulta Beauty CEO Dave Kimbell told CNBC in an extended interview Regarding organized retail crime, “The financial impact is real, but more importantly the human impact, the impact on our staff, the impact on our guests.”
The Macks and seven crew members were initially charged with 140 felonies. One of the defendants has been sentenced to three years and four months in prison, while the other defendants’ cases are pending, according to court records.
—CNBC’s Paige Tortorelli, Gabrielle Fonrouge and Courtney Reagan contributed to this article.
