A woman with a 20-year criminal record in three counties employed nearly two dozen individuals in a multistate retail theft ring that stole merchandise for resale out-of-state.
Linda Ann Been, 51, also known as Linda A. Gann and Linda A. Hargreaves, pleaded guilty in Tulsa’s Northern District federal court to 214 felony counts: one count of conspiracy, 165 counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and 45 counts of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity.
U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell recently sentenced Been to five years and four months in federal prison and ordered her to pay $43,197.76 in restitution.
Prosecutors said the crime ring Been directed stole an estimated $9 million worth of merchandise and over-the-counter medications from retail stores and pharmacies over a period of almost three years, between January 2018 and November 2021, when she and 22 co-defendants were indicted in Tulsa’s Northern District federal court.
Been admitted hiring a band of “boosters” to steal goods and merchandise, particularly medications, from retail stores.
A federal grand jury learned that in 2016 Been was “introduced to the practice of purchasing and reselling stolen merchandise acquired from boosters.” She began using an ex-husband’s eBay account to sell merchandise she obtained from boosters.
Through her use of eBay, Been “became acquainted with various ‘fences’ and ‘fencing’ operations” throughout the U.S. “who were interested” in buying stolen merchandise in bulk quantities.
Thus, Been sold stolen merchandise in large quantities and “at prices below market value, to various fencing operations located throughout the U.S.,” who in turn sold it online. And to “keep up with growing demand,” Been and some of her other conspirators recruited additional boosters “to help her obtain product.” One conspirator enlisted his ex-wife, his daughter, and one of his cousins.
Fences would send emails and text messages that “detailed lists of items and prices they would pay,” and they “generally agreed to pay Been half the retail value of any given item,” the indictment relates.
In turn, Been, also via emails and text messages, would provide her boosters with “detailed lists of the items she wanted and the amount she would pay for each item,” and instructed the boosters which stores to victimize.
Been’s boosters targeted Sam’s Club, CVS, Walgreens, Akin’s Natural Foods, GNC, Reasor’s, Sprouts, Target, Walmart and Costco stores in Tulsa, Claremore, Jenks, Owasso, Oklahoma City, Edmond, Norman and Moore. The boosters also committed thefts in Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Colorado and others, prosecutors wrote.
One of the thieves’ tricks was “box-stuffing”: concealing high-value items inside a lower-valued item box, paying only for the lower-valued item and “absconding with the concealed items.”
After stealing merchandise and medications, the boosters delivered the products to Been at various locations, including her residences at an RV park in Tulsa and a mobile home park in Cleveland, a business warehouse in Sand Springs operated by two of the conspirators, and another conspirator’s residence in Sand Springs.
The conspirators assembled pallets of inventory and contracted with freight companies to deliver their stolen goods to fencing operations.
Been received approximately $4.5 million in payments from fencing operations for shipments of an estimated $9 million in stolen property, the indictment reported.
Boosters’ travel expenses, jail bonds paid by Been When her boosters traveled outof state on shoplifting trips, Been sent payments via mobile payment platforms “to assist with their travel expenses,” the indictment relates.
And when a booster was arrested for theft or larceny, Been “facilitated bond payments for their release,” thereby enabling boosters “to continue stealing in furtherance of the conspiracy.”
If she was unable to secure a booster’s release from jail by paying his/ her bond, Been would send money to the booster’s jail commissary account and family members, in order to discourage their cooperation with law enforcement agencies.
A national investigation of the theft ring, “Operation Booster Buster,” began in 2019 after an organized crime investigator for CVS detected a trend in bulk thefts of items from Tulsa-area stores, officials said.
Items and products stolen by the boosters included Nicorette gum, Xyzal, Allegra, Abreva, Prevagen, Zantac, Mucinex, Rogaine, Zyrtec, Viviscal, Claritin, Culturelle, Flonase, Nasacort, Nexium, Zegrid, Prilosec, “and assorted vitamin products.” Two of the conspirators stole eight boxes of SeroVital dietary supplements and 88 boxes of Frontline flea treatment from a Costco store in Arlington, Texas, on Aug. 9, 2019.
Federal prosecutors have filed a forfeiture application to confiscate the proceeds from the gang’s operations, including $70,000 in real estate, cash seized in a credit union account, six motor vehicles and a $27,000 motorcycle, a travel trailer and a 2020 Jayco Pinnacle luxury fifth wheel owned by Been. 20 co-defendants have pleaded guilty Twenty of Been’s co-defendants have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced, U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson said.
Among them was Billy Don Osborne, 50, who was Linda Been’s boyfriend at the time.
Osborne eventually “was involved in all aspects of the retail theft operation,” investigators discovered.
As Osborne’s role in the retail theft operation expanded, he enlisted the aid of his family and friends. Not only was his ex-wife a booster, but his daughter also assisted with maintaining inventory records and preparing shipping documents.
Osborne even recruited his cousin, Juston Paul Osborne, to receive and store stolen property at his Sand Springs residence and to pay boosters for the stolen products. (Juston Osborne, too, was indicted in the case.)
“While this operation was started by Been, its success was due in large part to Osborne’s involvement,” a court record states.
According to law enforcement and prison officials, Osborne, “has spent his entire adult life as a thief, in and out of the state prison system.” The number of his convictions for theft-related crimes is “astounding.”
His criminal record includes motor vehicle theft in McIntosh County in 2018, concealing stolen property in Osage County in 2019, and nine felony cases filed in Tulsa County as far back as 1995. In July 2022 Osborne was sentenced to four years and three months in federal prison and was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine.
Been has a state criminal record that extends back 20 years.
In 2004 she was charged in Wagoner County District Court with possession of drug paraphernalia, tampering with surveillance equipment in order to commit a crime, and possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute.
She was charged in Tulsa County in 2005 with possession of methamphetamine after former conviction of a felony, and was allowed to enter a drug court program.
Four years later she was convicted in Tulsa County of possession with intent to distribute a controlled dangerous substance, and was sentenced to four years in prison.
And in 2019 she received a two-year suspended prison sentence in Oklahoma County on a conviction for larceny of merchandise from a retailer.
Been was permitted to remain free from custody on bond and voluntarily surrender to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons by 2 p.m. June 19.