One of the most intriguing stories that has taken over the sneaker scene would have to be the downfall of Zadeh Kicks, an Oregon-based resell company that was running like a classic Ponzi scheme by Michael Malekzadeh. News broke back in May that the business was being dissolved due to their inability to pay back their mountain of debt they owed prospective customers and creditors. His website was running on the e-commerce platform Shopify and quickly became one of the top storefronts for the company with zadehkicks.com allegedly being a part of the top 1% of businesses. In order to truly understand the full scope of this scam the court-appointed receiver, David P. Stapleton would need access to transactional records from their backend, though it seems they have been non-compliant in this action. According to Matt Halfhill of NiceKicks, the court is taking action after Stapleton “filed a declaration in support of a motion to compel Shopify to provide account access.”
Courts Attempts To Gain Access To Zadeh Kicks Shopify Account
Even before this declaration, the full story of Shopify’s inability to cooperate has played out in court with Stapleton airing his grievances all the way back in May as he noted “Shopify has failed to respond to the Receivers requests to reinstate complete access to the company’s Shopify account.” Since then, there has been a number of attempts to contact the legal team at the company that is run by former cabinet secretary for President Biden, Jessica Hertz, to no avail. Within this motion that was granted on August 24th, the court has compelled Shopify to reinstate access to Malekzadeh’s account, help Stapleton by providing login information, allow him access until his investigation is complete, and facilitate the ability to access data in regards to purchase history of the customers who have fallen victim to this Ponzi scheme.
Shopify's Response To This Motion
Even with that, there has been no movement from Shopify in regards to following the court order. NiceKicks was able to reach out to a spokesperson at Shopify who stated to them, “Shopify believes in making commerce better for everyone, and we take concerns around the goods and services made available by merchants on our platform very seriously. Shopify’s Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) clearly outlines the activities that are not permitted on our platform, including deceptive practices, and we take action when stores are found in violation. Zadeh Kicks was removed from the Shopify platform earlier this year.”
Access to the account would allow Stapleton to fully understand the extent of damages that, so far, have been estimated to be around $80 million. On top of the news that Zadeh Kicks’ inventory will be sold off in the future, having the ability to retrieve crucial information should make it easier on the court to try and compensate victims with the correct amount of damages they are owed. We’ll have to keep our eyes peeled on how this latest development unfolds, so keep it locked to our Twitter and the Sole Retriever mobile app for more up-to-date info on this riveting case and for the latest news in the sneaker and streetwear world.
Sneakerhead from South Florida who turned his passion into a career. Concerts, music, trying new restaurants, and catching the latest movies are some of the things I enjoy when not writing for Sole Retriever. Email: nick@soleretriever.com
