logo
Pawnbrokers raided in connection with Joe Burrow burglary denied bail days before the Super Bowl

Pawnbrokers raided in connection with Joe Burrow burglary denied bail days before the Super Bowl

Yahoo07-02-2025
NEW YORK (AP) — Two owners of a New York City pawnshop that was raided by the FBI in connection with an investigation into a burglary at the home of Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow were denied bail Friday, with a federal judge saying it would be 'ironic' to release the men just two days before the Super Bowl.
'No thank you. This is one Super Bowl Defendants will have to watch from the sidelines,' U.S. District Court Judge William Kuntz wrote in his decision ordering Dimitriy Nezhinskiy and Juan Villar held until their August trial date. 'They will not be players this weekend.'
FBI agents on Tuesday swept into the men's pawnshop in Manhattan's Diamond District, an area that is a little more than a city block but is home to more than 2,600 jewelers and serves as a conduit for a majority of the diamonds that enter the United States.
Prosecutors said a cache of suspected stolen property was found at the pawnshop and storage units in New Jersey belonging to Nezhinskiy. The shop, prosecutors said, served as a fencing operation that provided an 'essential market' for stolen goods that encouraged burglary crews to target wealthy homes around the country.
Nezhinskiy and Villar haven't been charged in connection with specific robberies, but prosecutors in New York said phone records link Nezhinskiy to one of the men charged with ransacking Burrow's house while he was playing in a game last year.
The men charged in the burglary took photos of themselves flashing some of the spoils, which included jewelry, watches, designer luggage and glasses. One even wore necklaces with pendants showing the number 9 and 'JB9,' Burrow's jersey number.
That break-in followed other robberies targeting other big-name American athletes.
Among the high-end homes hit by international robbery crews were those of NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs, who are vying for their third straight title when they face the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday in New Orleans.
Prosecutors say the thieves also plundered luxury items from the homes of Luka Doncic of the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers, and Mike Conley Jr. of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The investigation into the brazen burglaries has spanned several states and led to at least six arrests, though it's unclear whether there are any links between those thefts.
Prosecutors say the crews, consisting of foreign nationals from South America, mostly hit the homes while athletes were out of town, including when competing with their teams on road games.
Nezhinskiy's lawyer said he would immediately appeal the decision to jail his 43-year-old client, a Georgian national who lives in New Jersey.
A magistrate judge had earlier set bail at $1 million secured by two family properties in New Jersey and $150,000 in cash.
'The family is extremely upset with this change of events,' Todd Greenberg said after the hearing. 'They expect him to be home to fight this case.'
Villar's lawyer said he was also considering an appeal.
'It's alarming,' Lauriano Guzman said, noting his 48-year-old client, who lives in New York City, had been released less than 24 hours earlier after having posted $500,000 bail.
The lawyers had pushed back at the suggestion from prosecutors that the crimes their clients were charged with were violent.
Prosecutors argued the two, who have pleaded not guilty to stolen property charges, had lengthy criminal records, posed a danger to the community and were flight risks.
'Their conduct promotes the victimizing of individuals in their homes and endangering communities on a large scale,' prosecutors wrote in legal filings. 'This conduct was not isolated, instead, it has been ongoing for years.'
___
Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.
Philip Marcelo, The Associated Press
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Today in History: B-25 bomber crashes into Empire State Building
Today in History: B-25 bomber crashes into Empire State Building

Chicago Tribune

time2 hours ago

  • Chicago Tribune

Today in History: B-25 bomber crashes into Empire State Building

Today is Monday, July 28, the 209th day of 2025. There are 156 days left in the year. Today in history: On July 28, 1945, A U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashed into the 79th floor of New York's Empire State Building, the world's tallest structure at the time, killing 14 people. Also on this date: In 1794, Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just were executed by guillotine during the French Revolution. In 1914, World War I began as Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced he was increasing the number of American troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000. In 1976, an earthquake devastated northern China, killing at least 242,000 people, according to an official estimate. In 1984, the Los Angeles Summer Olympics officially opened; 14 Eastern Bloc countries, led by the Soviet Union, boycotted the Games. In 1995, a jury in Union, South Carolina, rejected the death penalty for Susan Smith, sentencing her to life in prison for drowning her two young sons (Smith will be eligible for parole in November 2024). In 1996, 8,000 year-old human skeletal remains (later referred to as Kennewick Man) were discovered in a bank of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington. In 2004, the Irish Republican Army formally announced an end to its armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland. In 2015, it was announced that Jonathan Pollard, the former U.S. Naval intelligence analyst who had spent nearly three decades in prison for spying for Israel, had been granted parole. In 2018, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the emeritus archbishop of Washington, D.C., following allegations of sexual abuse, including one involving an 11-year-old boy. Both died in April of 2025. In 2019, a gunman opened fire at a popular garlic festival in Gilroy, California, killing three people, including a six-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl, and wounding 17 others before taking his own life. Today's Birthdays: Music conductor Riccardo Muti is 84. Former Senator and NBA Hall of Famer Bill Bradley is 82. 'Garfield' creator Jim Davis is 80. TV producer Dick Ebersol is 78. Actor Sally Struthers is 78. Architect Santiago Calatrava is 74. CBS TV journalist Scott Pelley is 68. Actor Lori Loughlin is 61. Jazz musician-producer Delfeayo Marsalis is 60. UFC president Dana White is 56. Actor Elizabeth Berkley is 53. Basketball Hall of Famer Manu Ginobili is 48. Actor John David Washington is 41. Actor Dustin Milligan is 40. Rapper Soulja Boy is 35. England soccer star Harry Kane is 32. Pop/rock singer Cher Lloyd is 32. Golfer Nelly Korda is 27.

Confronted by crises, Philippine president delivers state of the nation speech
Confronted by crises, Philippine president delivers state of the nation speech

San Francisco Chronicle​

time2 hours ago

  • San Francisco Chronicle​

Confronted by crises, Philippine president delivers state of the nation speech

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is delivering his state of the nation speech while confronting diverse crises midway through his six-year term, including recent deadly storms with more than 120,000 people encamped in emergency shelters, turbulent ties with the vice president and escalating territorial disputes with Beijing in the South China Sea. About 22,000 policemen were deployed Monday to secure the House of Representatives complex in suburban Quezon city in the capital region before Marcos' address to both chambers of Congress, top government and military officials and diplomats. Thousands of protesters staged rallies to highlight a wide range of demands from higher wages due to high inflation to the immediate impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte over a raft of alleged crimes. Marcos' rise to power in mid-2022, more than three decades after an army-backed 'People Power' revolt overthrew his father from office and into global infamy, was one of the most dramatic political comebacks. But he inherited a wide range of problems, including an economy that was one of the worst-hit by the coronavirus pandemic, which worsened poverty, unemployment, inflation and hunger. His whirlwind political alliance with Duterte rapidly floundered and she and her family, including her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, became her harshest critics. The former president was arrested in March in a chaotic scene at Manila's international airport and flown to be detained by the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands for an alleged crime against humanity over his deadly anti-drugs crackdowns while still in power. Sara Duterte became the first vice president of the Philippines to be impeached in February by the House of Representatives, which is dominated by Marcos' allies, over a range of criminal allegations including largescale corruption and publicly threatening to have the president, his wife and Romualdez killed by an assassin if she herself were killed during her disputes with them. The Supreme Court ruled Friday that the impeachment case was unconstitutional due to a key procedural technicality, hampering Duterte's expected trial in the Senate, which has convened as an impeachment tribunal. House legislators said they were planning to appeal the decision. Unlike his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, who nurtured cozy ties with China and Russia, Marcos broadened his country's treaty alliance with the United States and started to deepen security alliances with Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada France and other Western governments to strengthen deterrence against increasingly aggressive actions by China in the disputed South Chin Sea. That stance has strained relations between Manila and Beijing. Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said the Marcos administration would continue to shift the military's role from battling a weakening communist insurgency to focusing on external defense, specially in the disputed South China Sea, a vital global trade route where confrontations between Chinese and Philippine coast guard and naval forces have intensified in recent years. 'The president's statements were, we would be unyielding and resistant to Chinese aggression in the West Philippines Sea,' Teodoro said in an interview by the ABS-CBN TV network, using the Philippine name for the stretch of disputed waters off the western Philippine coast. 'We've been gearing up towards that mission.' After returning to Manila, Marcos traveled to an evacuation center outside Manila to help distribute food and other aid to villagers displaced by back-to-back storms and days of monsoon downpours that have flooded vast stretches of the main northern Luzon region, including Manila.

As Dubai cracks down on crowded apartments, migrant workers have nowhere else to go

time5 hours ago

As Dubai cracks down on crowded apartments, migrant workers have nowhere else to go

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Lights flicker, doors hang off their hinges and holes in the walls expose pipes in the apartment building where Hesham, an Egyptian migrant worker, lives in Dubai, an emirate better known for its flashy skyscrapers and penthouses. His two-bedroom rental unit is carved up to house nine other men, and what he calls home is a modified closet just big enough for a mattress. But now the government has ordered the 44-year-old salesman out of even that cramped space, which costs him $270 a month. He's one of the many low-paid foreign laborers caught up in a widespread crackdown by authorities in Dubai over illegal subletting. That includes rooms lined with bunk beds that offer no privacy but are as cheap as a few dollars a night, as well as partitioned apartments like Hesham's, where plywood boards, drywall and plastic shower curtains can turn a flat into a makeshift dormitory for 10 or 20 people. After a blaze at a high-rise in June, Dubai officials launched the campaign over concerns that partitioned apartments represent a major fire risk. Some of those evicted have been left scrambling to stay off the streets, where begging is illegal. Others fear they could be next, uncertain when or where inspectors might show up. 'Now we don't know what we'll do,' said Hesham, who's staying put until his landlord evicts him. Like others living in Dubai's cheapest and most crowded spaces, he spoke to The Associated Press on condition only his first name be used for fear of coming into the crosshairs of authorities enforcing the ban on illegal housing. 'We don't have any other choice," he said. Dubai Municipality, which oversees the city-state, declined an AP request for an interview. In a statement, it said authorities have conducted inspections across the emirate to curb fire and safety hazards — an effort it said would 'ensure the highest standards of public safety' and lead to 'enhanced quality of life' for tenants. It didn't address where those unable to afford legal housing would live in a city-state that's synonymous with luxury yet outlaws labor unions and guarantees no minimum wage. Dubai has seen a boom since the pandemic that shows no signs of stopping. Its population of 3.9 million is projected to grow to 5.8 million by 2040 as more people move into the commercial hub from abroad. Much of Dubai's real estate market caters to wealthy foreign professionals living there long-term. That leaves few affordable options for the majority of workers — migrants on temporary, low-wage contracts, often earning just several hundred dollars a month. Nearly a fifth of homes in Dubai were worth more than $1 million as of last year, property firm Knight Frank said. Developers are racing to build more high-end housing. That continued growth has meant rising rents across the board. Short-term rentals are expected to cost 18% more by the end of this year compared to 2024, according to online rental company Colife. Most migrant workers the AP spoke to said they make just $300 to $550 a month. In lower-income areas, they said, a partitioned apartment space generally rents for $220 to $270 a month, while a single bunk in an undivided room costs half as much. Both can cost less if shared, or more depending on size and location. At any rate, they are far cheaper than the average one-bedroom rental, which real estate firm Engel & Völkers said runs about $1,400 a month. The United Arab Emirates, like other Gulf Arab nations, relies on low-paid workers from Africa and Asia to build, clean, babysit and drive taxi cabs. Only Emirati nationals, who are outnumbered nearly 9 to 1 by residents from foreign countries, are eligible for an array of government benefits, including financial assistance for housing. Large employers, from construction firms and factories to hotels and resorts, are required by law to house workers if they are paid less than $400 a month, much of which they send home to families overseas. However, many migrants are employed informally, making their living arrangements hard to regulate, said Steffen Hertog, an expert on Gulf labor markets at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The crackdown will push up their housing costs, creating 'a lot of stress for people whose life situation is already precarious,' he said. Hassan, a 24-year-old security guard from Uganda, shares a bed in a partitioned apartment with a friend. So far, the government hasn't discovered it, but he has reason to be nervous, he said. 'They can tell you to leave without an option, without anywhere to go.' Dubai has targeted overcrowded apartments in the past amid a spate of high-rise fires fueled by flammable siding material. The latest round of inspections came after a blaze in June at a 67-story tower in the Dubai Marina neighborhood, where some apartments had been partitioned. More than 3,800 residents were forced to evacuate from the building, which had 532 occupied apartments, according to a police report. That means seven people on average lived in each of these units in the tower of one-, two- and three-bedroom flats. Dozens of homes were left uninhabitable. There were no major injuries in that fire. However, another in 2023 in Dubai's historic Deira neighborhood killed at least 16 people and injured another nine in a unit believed to have been partitioned. Ebony, a 28-year-old odd-job worker from Ghana, was recently forced to leave a partitioned apartment after the authorities found out about it. She lived in a narrow space with a roommate who slept above her on a jerry-built plywood loft bed. 'Sometimes to even stand up,' she said, 'your head is going to hit the plywood.' She's in a new apartment now, a single room that holds 14 others — and sometimes more than 20 as people come and go, sharing beds. With her income of about $400 a month, she said she didn't have another option, and she's afraid of being forced out again.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store