Elk Grove Village Man Sentenced In $10M Interstate Shipment Theft Case: Feds

CHICAGO — An Elk Grove Village man has been sentenced to five years in federal prison after admitting he stole more than $10 million in goods from interstate shipments.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, Aivaras Zigmantas, 41, pleaded guilty in December 2025 to a federal wire fraud charge, and U.S. District Judge Elaine E. Bucklo imposed the 60-month sentence during a hearing Wednesday in federal court in Chicago.

Zigmantas used various aliases from 2020 to 2023 to falsely pose as a representative of real and fictitious carriers and brokers offering to transport shipments across state lines. After people and entities released shipments to him, Zigmantas and others diverted the loads from their intended destinations and stole the goods. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Zigmantas and others intended to steal at least $14.6 million in goods and successfully stole more than $10.1 million.

The stolen goods included liquor and commercial-grade copper. The sentence was announced by Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Matthew Scarpino, special agent-in-charge of the Chicago office of Homeland Security Investigations, and Michael J. Pfeiffer, acting director of field operations for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

In the government’s sentencing memorandum, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kate McClelland wrote, “Over the course of three years, defendant stole more than $10 million in shipments of copper and liquor by fraudulently posing as employees of both legitimate and fictitious logistics companies.”

McClelland also argued, “He had the ability to make different choices, but refused to do so, resulting in increasingly serious criminal conduct and substantial losses to his victims.”

The case was prosecuted as part of the Department of Justice’s Trade Fraud Task Force, which the announcement said pursues enforcement actions against parties who seek to evade or undermine federal customs laws. The Justice Department recently selected the Chicago U.S. Attorney’s Office to serve as a lead prosecutorial partner on the task force.

The announcement also said that on April 7, tthe Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division, or Fraud Division. The division is focused on investigating and prosecuting fraud cases.