Attorney General Griffin Announces Arrest of Conway County Couple for Organized Retail Crime

Griffin: ‘[W]e have only scratched the surface when it comes to uncovering the full scope of this organized retail crime operation’

LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin made the following announcement after investigators from his office’s Special Investigations Division arrested Andrew Sellwood and Robyn Rosamond-Sellwood on charges of Theft by Receiving, a Class B-Felony:

“Yesterday investigators from my Special Investigations Division, alongside the Conway County Sheriff’s Office, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and agents from other law enforcement agencies working with an HSI task force, executed a search warrant in the community of Cleveland in Conway County. The search warrant came about after Home Depot’s Corporate Investigations team shared intelligence with my office about a suspected organized retail crime (ORC) scheme targeting Home Depot stores nationwide.

“As part of this ORC scheme, criminals were purchasing items from Home Depot’s website using gift-card information they had obtained from Home Depot stores. The criminals scanned the gift-card information and then returned the gift cards to store displays. After purchasing items online, they then shipped the merchandise they had fraudulently obtained to the address in Cleveland, Arkansas. This operation illegally purchased an estimated $2 million in merchandise from Home Depot fraudulently using more than 6,000 gift cards. They then turned around and sold the merchandise through dozens of accounts on online shopping platforms.

“After executing the search warrant yesterday, we arrested Andrew Sellwood, a British national residing here on an expired visa, and his wife, Robyn Rosumond-Sellwood, an American citizen. They were both charged with felony Theft by Receiving and were booked into the Conway County Jail.

“My investigators and other law enforcement recovered electronic and consumer goods proprietary to Home Depot valued at more than $116,000, with many more items recovered that were tied to other retail outlets. The merchandise recovered filled two large moving trucks, and it is now being stored at a secure location. Two computers and three cell phones were also recovered and will be examined in my office’s digital forensics lab.

“Arresting this couple is a good first step, but we have only scratched the surface when it comes to uncovering the full scope of this organized retail crime operation. Our investigation will continue, and we appreciate the collaboration of HSI and other agencies as we look into evidence that will expand beyond Arkansas’s borders.

“I am grateful to the investigators in my office who have worked tirelessly to bring these criminals to justice, and I am also grateful to Conway County Sheriff Mike Smith, 15th Judicial District Prosecutor Tom Tatum, HSI, and Home Depot’s Corporate Investigations team. This is a big win in our fight against organized retail crime in Arkansas, and this outcome would not have happened without the legislature and the Governor supporting the addition of a dedicated ORC investigator to my Special Investigations Division.”

To download a PDF of this release, click here.

About Attorney General Tim Griffin

Tim Griffin was sworn in as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas on January 10, 2023, having previously served as the state’s 20th Lieutenant Governor from 2015-2023. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District, where he served on the House Committee on Ways and Means, House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Ethics and House Committee on the Judiciary while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority.

Griffin is currently an officer in the Arkansas Army National Guard and holds the rank of colonel. Griffin served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than 28 years. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.

His previous assignments include serving as the Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans, Louisiana; the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; and as a Senior Legislative Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin earned a master’s degree in strategic studies as a Distinguished Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

Griffin also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush; Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; Senior Investigative Counsel, Government Reform and Oversight Committee, U.S. House of Representatives; and Associate Independent Counsel, Office of Independent Counsel David M. Barrett, In re: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.

Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. He is admitted to practice law in Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive). Griffin lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.

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