NEW YORK – (Wire Service Report) – A New York City pawn shop owner has pleaded guilty to buying and selling luxury items stolen by a national burglary crew whose victims including Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York.
Burrow was playing a road game last December against the Dallas Cowboys when items were stolen from his home. The pattern of athletes’ homes burglarized while they were publicly scheduled elsewhere includes Kansas City Chiefs stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, and NBA stars Luka Doncic of the Los Angeles Lakers and Mike Conley Jr. of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The pawn shop owner, Dimitriy Nezhinskiy, 43, of North Bergen, N.J., pleaded guilty on Friday to one count of conspiracy to receive stolen property in a Brooklyn federal court. He admitted knowingly purchasing stolen property, including high-end watches, jewelry and handbags.
Nezhinskiy, whose sentencing date has not been determined, faces a maximum of five years in prison and restitution and forfeiture of more than $2.5 million. In addition, because he is from the country of Georgia while legally residing in the United States, Nezhinskiy faces federal charges and the possibility of deportation, District Judge William F. Kuntz said.
“This defendant ran a black-market pipeline, buying stolen luxury goods from organized theft crews that targeted homes and businesses,” New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a news release on Friday. “It was a deliberate operation that helped professional burglars prey on innocent people.”
Co-defendant Juan Villar, 48, who co-managed the pawn shop, pleaded guilty in June to the same charge, per Friday’s news release. The two men worked together between 2020 and this year, according to the release, as “fences” to receive and buy stolen goods from outside of New York. Villar, of Queens, N.Y., also is awaiting sentencing.
The news release said that South American Theft Group traveled the United States and targeted homes in affluent neighborhoods as well as jewelry vendors. The investigation involving multiple states has resulted in six arrests.
Nezhinskiy and Villar haven’t been charged with specific burglaries. Police searched the pawn shop as well as storage units owned by Nezhinskiy in New Jersey and found suspected stolen property including sports memorabilia, artwork and fine wine as well as luxury goods and clothing and “power tools consistent with those commonly used in burglaries and opening safes,” according to the news release.
Three men arrested in a series of burglaries, including the one of the crimes at Burrow’s home, were indicted in February by a federal grand jury in Cincinnati, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio.
–Field Level Media