Retail crime ‘queenpin’ faces five years in prison, millions in restitution

The ringleader of a nationwide organized retail crime operation that targeted Ulta Beauty and other major retailers is facing more than five years in a California state prison.

Michelle Mack, of Bonsall, California, received a delayed sentence of five years and four months, which be officially set in January. It was handed down by a San Diego County Superior Court judge on Thursday,

Her husband, Kenneth, received the same sentence and is already incarcerated. As part of his plea deal, he will be released after one year and then put on probation and community service for the remainder of his sentence.

The judge allowed Mack to serve her sentence after her husband is released so she can care for their children. She was ordered not to leave the state or go near any Ulta or Sephora stores.

The couple also must pay $3 million in restitution to Ulta and Sephora, according to the sentencing document.

Michelle Mack ran her operation from her 4,500-square foot mansion in Bonsall, which is outside San Diego, where authorities say she oversaw a network of about a dozen people who stole millions of dollars in merchandise from Ulta, Sephora and other major retailers.

The Macks had pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy to commit a felony and organized retail theft, petty theft, and receiving stolen property.

Attorneys for the Macks declined to comment, according to NBC 7 San Diego.

A CNBC investigation in March detailed Mack’s operation and showed how law enforcement traces stolen items from organized retail rings.

Investigators began referring to the theft group as the “California Girls” and considered Mack the crew’s ringleader. She made millions reselling the stolen items on Amazon via the “Online Makeup Store” to unwitting customers at a fraction of their typical retail price, investigators said, before she and her husband were arrested in December.

Since 2012, Mack had sold nearly $8 million in cosmetics through the storefront before it was shut down, and she brought in $1.89 million in 2022 alone, Amazon sales records provided to investigators show.

The site was shut down after the December arrests.

Earlier this year, Ulta Beauty CEO Dave Kimbell told CNBC in an extended interview about organized retail crime that the “financial impact is real, but way more important is the human impact, the impact it has to our associates, the impact it has to our guests.”

The Macks and seven members of the crew were originally charged with 140 felonies. One of the defendants has received a three year and four month sentence, while cases against the others are pending, according to court records.

— CNBC’s Paige Tortorelli, Gabrielle Fonrouge and Courtney Reagan contributed to this story.