Yorktown Brothers Plead Guilty to Stealing 1,200 Computers
Two brothers from Yorktown pled guilty in federal court Thursday to charges associated with taking part in a scheme to steal, transport and sell a shipment of approximately 1,200 computers, valued at more than $1 million, bound for two public schools in New Jersey.
According to Joon H. Kim, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Anton Saljanin, 45, and Gjon Saljanin, 42, could face between five to 10 years in prison when they are scheduled to be sentenced in February after appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Margaret Smith in White Plains.
The complaint and indictment filed against the Saljanin brothers alleged on or about January 15, 2014, Anton Saljanin, a shipping company driver, drove a truck from Yorktown to a technology company in Massachusetts to pick up a shipment of about 1,200 computers with his brother.
The next morning, Anton Saljanin reported to the Yorktown Police Department that the truck had been stolen from a parking lot in Yorktown. Later that day, he told police he had been driving around looking for the truck when he spotted it from the highway in a parking lot in Danbury, Connecticut. ,
However, it was determined that the truck would not have been visible in that parking lot by a driver from the highway, and cell phone records indicated Saljanin did not take the route he claimed he did.
Yorktown police detectives examined the truck and found a window had been broken. They also discovered broken glass at the scene in Danbury but not in Yorktown, suggesting the window had been smashed there.
In addition, security camera footage from various locations in Yorktown contradicted where the Saljanin brothers told police they traveled on January 15, 2014. Instead, they traveled to the Yorktown home of Ujka Vulaj, 56, a longtime friend, and unloaded the computers.
Federal officials alleged from January to April 2014, Vulaj sold the stolen computers, some with the help of a co-worker, Carlos Caceres, 39, of the Bronx, far below their market value of $1,000.
Vulaj was sentenced in May to 12 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $889,424 in ill-gotten gains. Caceres was sentenced to 27 months in jail and ordered to forfeit $331,188 in ill-gotten gains.
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/