An artful dodger will serve hard time

RALEIGH -- A Raleigh man who amassed thousands of DVDs and CDs and quirky lawn ornaments was sentenced last week on federal charges of selling stolen property.

Somsak Saeku, 46, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle to nine years for wire fraud and interstate transportation of stolen goods.

He was also ordered to make $45,230 in restitution to one of his victims, according to a news release Monday from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

In September, a federal jury convicted Saeku of selling stolen goods through Internet sites such as eBay and Half.com. Saeku made money off more than 9,000 online sales from 2005 to 2007, according to his federal indictment.

At least seven of 20 victims testified at the trial, including one who told of an incident where Saeku used a knife to avoid apprehension, the press release said.

Saeku, who served as his own attorney, also was found guilty of attempting an insurance scam in which he falsely claimed to have been the victim of a home invasion in July 2005 and filed for $156,912 in insured losses.

Saeku's run-in with federal authorities came after years of battles with local law enforcement. Saeku has been arrested at least nine times in the last 15 years for larceny and has 22 documented incidents of shoplifting, according to the U.S. Attorney's news release.

In this case, he was found to have stolen more than $1 million from Triangle area merchants in nearly four years, the release said.

A Wake County sheriff's deputy who went to Saeku's house at the corner of Quail Hollow Drive and Hardimont Road in 2006 to set up an electronic house-arrest unit noticed more than 10,000 DVDs and CDs in boxes in his house.

That year, police also seized a computer from the North Regional Library after they saw him using the machine to access Half.com and eBay. Police said he was using the sites to sell stolen DVDs, CDs and other merchandise.

As a result of his conviction in federal court, the federal government seized Saeku's house. He was also ordered to forfeit his cars and bank accounts.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said Saeku had amassed $500,000 in assets in addition to his home, valued at $214,000. He was ordered to forfeit all but one investment account to the government.