Federal charges for man accused of over $9.5 million in cargo theft

An Illinois man is facing federal charges after allegedly stealing over $9.5 million in cargo from various interstate shipments over a three-year span.

In a recently unsealed indictment from the Unites States District Court in Chicago, federal prosecutors say Aivaras Zigmantas used nearly a dozen aliases to “falsely pose as a representative of real and fictitious carriers and brokers” to divert high-value loads – including liquor and commercial-grade copper – from their original destinations.

The indictment claims that Zigmantas would then divert the shipments to various warehouses, where he and accomplices he recruited would steal the loads. Prosecutors said the group had planned to steal approximately $13.6 million in goods and had successfully made off with more than $9.5 million in cargo from the scheme.

Federal prosecutors said Zigmantas used nearly a dozen aliases to perpetrate his scheme, including:

• “Rolandas Butkus”
• “Vismantas Danyla”
• “Tom Kempinski”
• “Arturas Liaskevicius”
• “Darius Meskauskas”
• “Arminas Rimkus”
• “Egidijus Stankus”
• “Darius Venskus”
• “Aivarasz Zigmaneas”
• “Kathy Stone”

According to the indictment, Zigmantas used the aliases to open bank accounts to make payments to carriers as a means of covering up his crew’s actions. As part of the scheme, they created email addresses and websites and opened UPS Store mailboxes in the names of fake businesses using fraudulent documentation, including driver’s licenses and foreign passports.

Zigmantas is charged with six counts of wire fraud, five counts of bank fraud and two counts of theft of interstate shipments. He submitted a plea of not guilty during his initial arraignment.

Rise in cargo theft

The increase in theft in the trucking industry has been well documented over the past year, with one industry insider recently saying the crime has reached “new heights.”

In May, Jersey City, N.J.-based data- and information-sharing company CargoNet noted a 10% increase in reported theft incidents in the first quarter of 2024 when compared to the final quarter of the 2023 – an increase of 46% compared to the first quarter of the previous year.

The increase in theft has been significant enough to make the Federal Bureau of Investigation take notice. In April, the Office of Private Sector and the FBI’s Little Rock Field Office shared details of a rise in cargo theft through “social engineering” scams.

“This scheme uses social engineering to take over carrier administrator accounts or online accounts for third-party transportation services and (to) trick shippers, brokers or carriers into transferring loads to criminal actors for financial gain,” the agencies said.

According to data from the OPS, there were nearly 500 fraud and fictitious pick-up incidents recorded between November 2022 and July 2023, a year-over-year increase of 503%. LL