Greece pawn shop owner going to prison for his role in retail theft ring involving hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of stolen merchandise

Date: Feb. 12, 2026

Contact: [email protected]

Rochester, NY - U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced today that Dominic Sprague of Greece, NY, who was convicted of conspiracy to transport stolen goods in interstate commerce, was sentenced to serve 60 months in prison by Chief U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle P. Rossi, who handled the case, stated that between December 2021 and Oct. 17, 2024, Sprague, who was the owner and operator of the New York Gold Diamond Pawn Shop in Greece, engaged in a conspiracy with larcenists, Amanda Reeves, Shabon Banks, Chad Lewis Jr., and pawn shop manager James Civiletti, to buy and sell stolen goods.

As part of the scheme, Reeves, Banks, and Lewis stole new-in-box items from store shelves on a weekly and sometimes daily basis, both alone and in concert with one another. They then sold the stolen goods to the pawn shop, which was managed by Civiletti, for a fraction of their actual retail value. The pawn shop then resold the stolen merchandise on eBay at much higher prices, resulting in significant profits. In total, the New York Gold Diamond Pawn Shop purchased 37,936 stolen new-in-box items from Reeves, Banks, and Lewis on more than 670 occasions, for which they were paid $290,000.00, which was approximately 25% of the actual retail value of the stolen items. This resulted in actual losses to the victim-retailers of approximately $1,160,000.00.

Banks, Reeves, Lewis and Civiletti were previously convicted.

The sentencing is the result of an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations Division, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Harry Chavis; the Greece Police Department, under the direction of Chief Michael Wood; the Monroe County Sheriff's Office, under the direction of Sheriff Todd Baxter; and Homeland Security Investigations, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Erin Keegan.

IRS-CI is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. It is the only federal law enforcement agency with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code. IRS-CI has 18 field offices located across the U.S. and maintains an international presence through attaché posts abroad.