NYC pawn shop owner pleads guilty to fencing Joe Burrow's stolen property
Dimitriy Nezhinskiy, 43, pleaded guilty Friday to one count of conspiracy to receive stolen property — including expensive watches, jewelry and handbags — in a Brooklyn federal court, the Associated Press reported.
Burrow was among several high-profile athletes whose houses were targeted and robbed by what have been described by the FBI as South American theft crews.
4 Joe Burrow speaks onstage during Fanatics Fest NYC 2025 at Javits Center on June 21, 2025 in New York City.
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The Cincinnati quarterback was playing a road game in Dallas in December when an estimated $300,000 worth of items were taken from his Ohio home.
Chiefs teammates Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, and NBA stars Luka Dončić and Mike Conley, were also victimized in the rash of robberies.
Three men were arrested and indicted in February by a federal grand jury in Cincinnati, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Ohio, for multiple burglaries, including the one of Burrow's home.
4 Joe Burrow looks on before a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium on January 04, 2025 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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4 Joe Burrow is pictured during a Bengals practice May 13.
AP
No sentencing date has been set, but Nezhinskiy faces a maximum of five years in prison and restitution of roughly $2.5 million.
The legal New Jersey resident also potentially faces deportation to the country of Georgia, 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 Friday in a statement. 'It was a deliberate operation that helped professional burglars prey on innocent people.'
4 Arraignment of Dimitriy Nezhinskiy and Juan Villar at Brooklyn Federal Court. The two are alleged to be running a fencing operation for a South American theft groups in the Manhattan Diamond District.
Gabriella Bass
Juan Villar, a 48-year-old Queens resident who ran the pawn shop with Nezhinskiy, had previously pleaded guilty in June to the same charge, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
'For more than five years, Dimitriy Nezhinskiy established a demand for stolen merchandise, which allowed South American Theft Groups to profit from repeated burglaries,' FBI assistant director in charge Christopher Raia said in a statement. 'His purchases perpetuated a ripple of criminality targeting residences and businesses across the country.'
Nezhinskiy and Villar have not been charged in connection with the burglaries, but in searches of the pawn shop and storage units owned by Nezhinskiy in New Jersey police found sports memorabilia, artwork and other luxury merchandise suspected to be stolen in the robberies.
They also uncovered power tools 'consistent with those commonly used in burglaries and opening safes,' according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
During the current season of the Netflix series 'Quarterback,' Burrow admitted that he recently canceled the purchase of a replica 'Batmobile' following the home invasion.
'I just get very uncomfortable,' Burrow said. 'My life is very public. That comes with the job, but there's certain parts of your life that are yours. Your house is one of those.'
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