California mom behind Ulta retail theft crime ring ordered to pay $3M in restitution

The California mom who pleaded guilty to leading an extensive retail theft crime ring that stole beauty products from Ulta and Sephora to resell on Amazon has been ordered to pay millions of dollars in restitution.

Michelle Mack, 54, the married, mother-of-three “queenpin,” was ordered to pay $3 million in restitution to Ulta, Sephora, and a number of other retailers her crime ring targeted, according to CNBC.

As part of a deal Mack struck with prosecutors last year, she forfeited her 4,500-square foot mansion in Bonsall, California.

The four-bedroom, five-bathroom house sat on a three-acre property with a vineyard, chapel, and four-car garage, and sold in December for $2.35 million, according to property records.

Funds left over from the sale, after bank debts are satisfied, will go toward paying restitution.

Mack and her husband, Kenneth Mack, 60, will pay back the remaining balance “over time,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said, according to CNBC.

It is unclear if Mack had a mortgage on the property. She originally bought the home in Bonsall, which is outside San Diego, for $2.29 million in 2021, according to property records.

It’s also not clear how the restitution will be split up amongst victims. While Mack’s crime ring – dubbed the “California Girls” – mostly targeted Ulta stores, they also stole from other retailers, like Sephora.

Ulta and Sephora did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

While the restitution may appear minuscule compared to Ulta’s net income – $807.8 million in the first nine months of 2024 – it’s a sizable amount compared to past retail theft cases.

David Johnston, vice president of asset protection and retail operations at the National Retail Federation, told CNBC that restitution for retailers has only recently started reaching into the millions.

“The level of theft…has not been as substantial and as commonplace as we’ve seen over the last, you know, four years or so,” Johnston said.

“This is going to be what we would expect to see when we start to get these organized retail crime groups through the judicial process. It is a substantial amount of loss, a complex organization, which involves a number of individuals, and then sentencing and restitution that meet the crime.”

Still, restitution payments in complex retail theft crime rings rarely make up for the total losses suffered.

Last year, Bonta’s office slammed Mack and her husband with felony charges after law officials found more than $300,000 worth of stolen goods at their home – a fraction of the estimated $8 million the couple stole since 2012, according to prosecutors.

The complex cosmetics theft scheme spanned at least a dozen states, according to the report.

Mack was not accused of stealing the beauty products herself, but rather, recruiting a group of young women to swipe the items so she could resell them at cheap prices on her Amazon storefront.

Last summer, she was sentenced to five years and four months in state prison, though her sentence was delayed until Jan. 9 since the couple has young children. Kenneth was also sentenced to five years and four months.

In the meantime, Mack was ordered not to go near any Ulta or Sephora stores, officials said.

At least nine others were charged in connection with the crime ring, which hit hundreds of stores across California and 10 other states.