Businessman Sentenced to More Than Two Years in Federal Prison for Running Fencing Operation out of Suburban Chicago Stores

CHICAGO - A businessman has been sentenced to more than two years in federal prison for running a fencing operation out of his suburban Chicago stores.

ZIAD I. ZAYED used his store - Crestwood Electronics Inc. in Crestwood, Ill. - and other businesses to knowingly purchase stolen electronic devices and other merchandise, re-package the items, and then sell them to buyers out of state and overseas. Some of the items fenced by Zayed included laptop computers, fitness tracking devices, and digital cameras, some of which were stolen from railcars near Chicago.

Zayed, 49, of Frankfort, Ill., pleaded guilty last year to a federal conspiracy charge. U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman on Wednesday sentenced Zayed to two years and four months in federal prison and ordered him to pay more than $1.3 million in restitution.

The sentence was announced by Morris Pasqual, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Douglas S. DePodesta, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI.

"By providing a marketplace to sell stolen goods, the defendant has incentivized thieves to steal and rob, whether that's off tractor trailers sitting on railcars or phones from innocent victims," Assistant U.S. Attorneys Barry Jonas and Ann Marie E. Ursini argued in the government's sentencing memorandum.