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Yorktown Heights resident Anton Saljanin, 46, has been sentenced to 48 months in prison and must pay $989, 424.15 in restitution after pleading guilty last year to his role in a scheme selling the computers, which were heading for a pair of schools in New Jersey.
Geoffrey Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced Saljanin’s sentence on Monday. Saljanin pleaded guilty 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, as well as theft from an interstate shipment in October last year.
While working as a driver for a shipping company in 2014, Saljanin and his brother, Gjon, drove from Yorktown Heights to a technology company in Massachusetts, where he picked up a shipment of approximately 1,200 computers, which were to be delivered to two schools in Massachusetts.
The morning after picking up the computers, Saljanin reported to local police that the truck had been stolen from a Yorktown Heights parking lot. Later, Saljanin reported 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.”
Berman noted that “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 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.”
While speaking with police, both Saljanin brothers lied to police, claiming that on Jan. 15, 2014, they drove the truck from a convenience store in Yorktown to the parking lot it was allegedly broken into. Security camera footage would later show that the brothers left their alleged route and instead drove toward the residence of Ujka Vulaj, a longtime friend of Saljanin.
Berman said that 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.
For several months, Vulaj sold the stolen computers, with the help of a co-worker, Carlos Caceres. They sold the computers, which have an estimated value of approximately $1,000 a piece for prices between $500 and $800, well below market value. Saljanin’s cohorts have all been convicted and sentenced. Each received more than a year in prison and have been ordered to pay restitution.
“Anton Saljanin was the ringleader and insider in an inside job that resulted in the theft of over $1 million worth of computers meant for school kids. Now, having admitted his role in this truck hijacking scheme, he has been sentenced to prison for his crimes.”
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