Mubasher Riaz had a medical degree and two daughters, yet he sexually preyed on depressed young girls, the FBI says, and also scammed online companies like Amazon out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
For a man who put himself through medical school, the government says, it didn’t have to be this way. But Riaz chose a lawless way of life, court records show, that ended with him getting caught and pleading guilty to both child exploitation and white-collar crimes.
Now, in an unusual legal arrangement, the Ypsilanti man is going to pay $150,000 in restitution to the two minor girls he manipulated — for which he already was sentenced to 15½ years in prison — as part of the punishment for his financial crimes.
In U.S. District Court on July 10, Riaz pleaded guilty to wire fraud, admitting he and his brother ran an online return scheme in which they bought products, submitted refund requests pretending the products were defective, but never sent them back. Instead, the FBI says, the brothers shipped back empty boxes, a counterfeit item, or a book that weighed as much as the purchased product, then kept the refunded money when it arrived.
The brothers would then turn around and sell the products for cash, including cellphones, tablets, doorbells and clothing, the FBI says, while cheating hundreds of online vendors out of least $400,000. The scheme ran from 2017-23.
According to court documents, here’s a glimpse at how it worked:
Riaz’s brother bought an iPhone X on Amazon in 2019, submitted a return request for the phone, then received a $710.70 refund for it. Two weeks later, Riaz sold the phone to someone in Chicago for $535 cash.
His brother, Muzzammil Riaz, pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme on June 4. In their pleas, both brothers admitted to using fraudulent identities, virtual private networks and different electronic devices to avoid fraud detection by the online vendors.
How Snapchats with girls landed Ruiz on FBI’s radar — ‘Those are the actions of an evil man’
Under the terms of his plea agreement in the fraud case, Riaz has agreed to pay $150,000 in restitution to two victims who had nothing to do with his return scheme. Rather, the FBI says, they are the two girls, ages 13 and 14, he sexually preyed upon in 2023, when federal agents raided his house looking for evidence of child sex crimes. It was during that raid that FBI agents discovered multiple items “in plain view” tied to the refund scheme: laptops, cellphones, and credit cards with handwritten notes containing names, passwords, addresses, and birth dates of multiple individuals.
A fraud investigation followed, with Mubasher Riaz getting arrested in November 2023, and charged with two different crimes: stealing from online companies and preying on children.
In the latter case, the FBI says Mubasher Riaz was messaging numerous girls on Snapchat, some as young as 11, asking for nude photos and sexual favors in exchange for nicotine, weed and other items. He bragged that he was “nearly a doctor,” court records show, and was “very successful” in an effort to impress them.
In one instance, Riaz drove to a 14-year-old girl’s foster home and had sex with her in his car, telling her to “bring a towel” after she expressed concerns to him about bleeding. The girl had just had a baby.
“This defendant preyed in the most disgusting ways on vulnerable girls as young as 11 years old. Those are the actions of an evil man,” U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr. said after Riaz’s sentencing in June.
Riaz, 41, was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison — 188 months — after previously pleading guilty to coercion and enticement of a minor. He could get another decade in prison when he is sentenced for his fraud conviction at a later date. As part of his guilty plea in that case, he has agreed to pay $50,000 to a 13-year-old girl he coerced into sending him nudes, and $100,000 to the 14-year-old girl he had sex with after also manipulating her in Snapchat conversations.
It was those Snapchats with minor girls, the FBI says, that would eventually unearth his online return scam whose victims have yet to be fully accounted for.
According to court records, here is what landed Riaz on the FBI’s radar, and ultimately in federal prison.
Ohio child sexploitation investigation leads to Michigan man
The investigation of Mubasher Riaz began in Ohio, where the Maumee Police Department was investigating allegations that a 13-year-old girl had engaged in sexual acts with an adult male — but not Riaz. It was while reviewing that girl’s Snapchat account that investigators found a July 2023 conversation between the girl and a Snapchat user named “bitcoinmuba.”
It was Riaz, who quickly learned through his chats with the girl that she was depressed and that her mom and stepdad were in prison. He soon offered to bring her nicotine and weed in exchange for sexual favors, and asked what her body looks like. The girl sent him nudes.
The FBI says there’s no evidence that Riaz ever went to visit the girl. But, over time, the agency learned of other minor girls he communicated with, including the 14-year-old girl he actually visited and had sex with in his parked car.
“Riaz intentionally targeted girls who were depressed, or who had mental health issues, or who were otherwise vulnerable. That is because Riaz did not care about the circumstances of his victims; he only cared about his own perverse sexual desires,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary Zurek wrote in a June sentencing memo.
The prosecutor then cited a chat from Riaz to the 14-year-old girl. This chat, he wrote, “says it all.”
“When Riaz told (the girl) he was on his way to her location to have sex, (the girl) expressed hesitation because she was ‘still bleeding’ and in recovery after recently delivering a baby,” the prosecutor writes in his memo. “Riaz responded, ‘Don’t worry [b]ring a towel with u when I pull up.'”
Riaz also offered to buy diapers for the girl’s baby in exchange for sex, the prosecutor wrote, as he urged the judge to lock Riaz up for 188 months. The judge did just that.
“The defendant clearly has the ability to excel in society. He paid for his own schooling, putting himself through medical school, and claims to have received a medical degree in 2015,” the prosecutor’s sentencing memo reads. “He demonstrated knowledge of complex technologies and entrepreneurial skills doing electronic repair and resale, through work at various sandwich shops, and through investments in the stock market and in cryptocurrency.
“Unfortunately,” the prosecutor wrote, “Riaz used his skills and education for fraud and child exploitation.”
Ruiz’s family asks judge for mercy: ‘He is a survivor of sexual abuse’
In court documents, Riaz’s family members and his lawyer urged the judge to show mercy and hand down the lowest possible sentence for his crime — in this case, 151 months, or 12½ years.
In seeking leniency, Riaz’s family members portrayed him as a “devoted” father to two daughters who lost his way following the breakup of his marriage, and who has carried unresolved trauma since childhood.
“He is a survivor of sex abuse … something that, in our culture, is rarely spoken about due to stigma and shame,” Riaz’s sister wrote to the judge in a letter. “He has lived for years with the weight of this unspoken trauma, and it has profoundly affected his mental health.”
The sister said her brother’s divorce caused even more trauma as she pleaded for a lenient sentence.
“He is not beyond help,” the sister writes. “He is someone who needs treatment, support and a second chance.”
His widowed mother, who portrayed Riaz as a devoted son who takes care of her and helps the community, echoed her daughter’s sentiments.
“I know my son has made mistakes,” the mother wrote the judge, “but he is not a bad person. He still has so much good in him.”
Mubasher Riaz’s attorney, Jean Pierre Nogues, also urged the judge to consider Riaz’s cooperation in both cases, maintaining the plea deal in the sex crimes case was reached “only” after Riaz “thoroughly explained the complex scheme by which he defrauded online retailers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars and invested the proceeds into cryptocurrency.”
“Mr. Riaz also provided the government with the critical information that enabled the government to inventory and seize the cryptocurrency accounts. Without Mr. Riaz’s detailed confession and guidance, it may have taken the government many more months or even years to unravel the scheme or seize the assets,” Nogues writes in his sentencing memo.
But U.S. District Judge Sean Cox was not swayed as he gave Riaz the sentence that prosecutors pushed for.
In the fraud case, under the terms of his plea agreement, Riaz will eventually have to pay restitution to the companies he stole from — an amount that will be decided at a later date when he is sentenced. The government said it believes many possible victims of the scheme exist, and urges potential victims to contact the FBI at www.fbi.gov/mubasherriazvictims.
Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How an Ypsilanti father was a sexual predator, and an Amazon scammer at the same time
Reporting by Tresa Baldas, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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