Gates man sentenced for his role in retail theft ring involving over a million dollars in stolen merchandise

Date: Nov. 18, 2025

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced today that Shabon Banks of Gates, NY, who was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, was sentenced to serve 63 months prison by Chief U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford. Banks was also ordered to pay $92,903.34 in restitution to various retailers, including Best Buy, Home Depot, Kohls, Lowes, Macy’s, Target, and Walmart.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle P. Rossi, who handled the case, stated that between December 2021, and October 17, 2024, Banks conspired with a group of serial larcenists, including Amanda Reeves and Chad Lewis, to engage in an ongoing retail theft conspiracy involving the New York Gold Diamond Pawn Shop. The pawn shop is owned and operated by another co-defendant Dominic Sprague and managed by co-defendant James Civiletti.

Banks and the other larcenists stole new-in-box items from store shelves on a weekly, and sometimes daily, basis. They then sold the stolen goods to the pawn shop for a fraction of the actual retail value. The pawn shop, including Civiletti, then resold the stolen merchandise on eBay at much higher prices, resulting in significant profits. The pawn shop purchased 37,936 stolen new-in-box items from Lewis, Jr., Banks, and Reeves on more than 670 occasions, for which the larcenists were paid $290,000.00. The actual losses to the victim-retailers were approximately $1,160,000.00.

In addition, Banks unlawfully used an ID belonging to another person to engage in transactions at the pawn shop. He also recklessly created a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury to another person in the course of fleeing from law enforcement while the scheme was ongoing. In 2022 and 2024, Banks led police on high-speed car chases, which police discontinued because of the threat posed to other motorists.

Reeves, Banks, Sprague, and Civiletti were previously convicted.

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

IRS Criminal Investigation (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. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 19 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.