47th Street Shop Owners Charged With Fencing Goods From South American Gangs

By Rob Bates | February 05, 2025

Federal authorities have charged Dimitriy Nezhinskiy, 43, and Juan Villar, 48, operators of a pawnshop in New York City’s Diamond District, with acting as fences for South American theft gangs, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement issued Tuesday.

Villar and Nezhinskiy (a Georgian national also known as “Ruso”) have been charged with three counts of receiving stolen property and one count of conspiracy to receive stolen property, according to an indictment filed Jan. 30 in New York federal court.

In a subsequent letter detailing the charges, prosecutors said the two men had purchased items from Bryan Leandro Herrera Maldonado, “a prolific burglar who committed at least 16 residential burglaries across the United States between 2019 and 2020.”

Phone records and video surveillance link Nezhinskiy to at least two members of a four-man burglary crew that was said to be involved in the Dec. 9 burglary of the Ohio home of a “high-profile athlete,” the letter said. News accounts have identified the athlete as Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow. Four men were arrested in January for the Burrow robbery.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office additionally asserted that between October 2022 and January 2024, Nezhinskiy and Villar bought seven items—including luxury handbags and other accessories—from an undercover detective, even after they’d been informed the goods were stolen.

After raiding the men’s pawnshop, federal agents seized watches and jewelry they suspect were stolen, along with large amounts of wine and marijuana, according to the prosecutors’ letter. A raid of Nezhinskiy’s storage units in New Jersey uncovered expensive handbags, wine, sports memorabilia, jewelry, and artwork, as well as power tools consistent with those commonly used in burglaries and opening safes, it said.

Prosecutors have asked that the two men be held without bail.

Scott Guginsky, executive vice president of the Jewelers’ Security Alliance (JSA), declined comment on the case except to commend the federal and local authorities for their hard work.

“The industry is safer when you don’t have criminals that steal and then look to fence jewelry on 47th Street,” he says.

The two men have pleaded not guilty. Nezhinskiy’s lawyer did not return a request for comment by press time.

(Photo: Getty Images)