Two Brothers From Yorktown Heights Plead Guilty In Connection With Heist Of Over $1 Million Worth Of Computers Bound For Public High School Students
Joon H. Kim, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that ANTON SALJANIN and GJON SALJANIN plead guilty this week before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Margaret Smith to charges associated with participating in a scheme to steal, transport, and sell a shipment of approximately 1,200 computers, valued at over $1 million, that were bound for two public high schools in New Jersey. All four defendants charged in the scheme have pled guilty. ANTON SALJANIN and GJON SALJANIN are scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Karas in February 2018.
According to the Complaint and Superseding Indictment filed in White Plains federal court, as well as materials submitted in connection with the plea proceedings:
On or about January 15, 2014, ANTON SALJANIN, a driver for a shipping company, drove a truck from Yorktown Heights, New York, to a technology company located in Massachusetts to pick up a shipment of approximately 1,200 computers. ANTON SALJANIN brought his brother, GJON SALJANIN, with him. The computers were being shipped to two public high schools located in New Jersey, and were valued at over $1 million.
The next morning, ANTON SALJANIN reported to the Yorktown Police Department that the truck had been stolen from a parking lot located in Yorktown Heights. Later that day, ANTON SALJANIN reported to Yorktown Police that he had been driving around looking for the truck when he happened to spot it from the highway in a parking lot in Danbury, Connecticut. The truck would not have been visible in the Danbury parking lot to a driver passing by on the highway. Furthermore, historical cell site data for ANTON SALJANIN’s cellphone contradicts his claims about the route he took to look for the truck.
Yorktown Police detectives examined the truck and found that a window had been broken. The detectives found broken glass on the scene in the Danbury parking lot but found no broken glass on the scene in the Yorktown Heights parking lot, suggesting that the window had been broken at the Danbury parking lot rather than at the Yorktown Heights parking lot.
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During interviews with the Yorktown Police, ANTON SALJANIN and GJON SALJANIN both falsely claimed that on the night of January 15, 2014, they drove directly from a convenience store outside of Yorktown Heights to the Yorktown Heights parking lot. Security camera footage from various locations in Yorktown Heights shows that a truck matching the description of the truck driven by the SALJANIN brothers departed from their claimed route, and instead traveled in the direction of the residence of Ujka Vulaj, a long-time friend of ANTON SALJANIN. The video surveillance footage also shows that the duration of the detour corresponds to the approximate length of time it would have taken to drive to Vulaj’s residence, unload the computers from the truck, and return to the route to the Yorktown Heights parking lot.
From in or about January 2014 through at least in or about April 2014, Vulaj sold the stolen computers, some with the help of a co-worker, Carlos Caceres. They sold the computers, which had a retail value of approximately $1,000, for far below the market price. Vulaj and Caceres charged approximately $500 to $800 in cash for each computer, and handed over each computer in plain brown cardboard packaging.
ANTON SALJANIN, 45, of Yorktown Heights, New York, pled guilty on October 18, 2017, to one count of conspiracy to commit theft from an interstate shipment, interstate transportation of stolen property, and receipt, possession, and sale of stolen property, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; and one count of theft from an interstate shipment, which carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on February 6, 2018.
GJON SALJANIN, 42, of Yorktown Heights, New York, pled guilty on October 16, 2017, to one count of conspiracy to commit theft from an interstate shipment, interstate transportation of stolen property, and receipt, possession, and sale of stolen property, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on February 2, 2018.
The SALJANINs’ co-defendants have been convicted and sentenced. Vulaj, 56, of Yorktown Heights, New York, pled guilty on June 17, 2016, to one count of conspiracy to commit theft from an interstate shipment, interstate transportation of stolen property, and receipt, possession, and sale of stolen property, and was sentenced by Judge Karas on May 12, 2017, to 12 months and one day in prison and two years of supervised released (including 6 months of home confinement). Judge Karas also ordered Vulaj to forfeit $889,424.15 in ill-gotten gains and to pay $889,424.15 in restitution.
Caceres, 39, of the Bronx, New York, pled guilty on July 21, 2016, to one count of conspiracy to commit receipt, possession, and sale of stolen property, and was sentenced by Judge Karas on January 6, 2017, to 27 months in prison and three years of supervised released. Judge Karas also ordered Caceres to forfeit $331,188 in ill-gotten gains and to pay $331,188 in restitution.
Mr. Kim praised the outstanding investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Yorktown Police Department, the Westchester County Police Department, and the New York City Police Department. He also thanked the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office for its assistance.
This case is being handled by the Office’s White Plains Division. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Won S. Shin, Benjamin Allee, and Scott Hartman are in charge of the prosecution.
