Federal authorities said in court documents released Tuesday that one of two men accused of fencing luxury goods stolen from homes across the nation was connected to a theft at the home of a “high-profile athlete in Ohio” on the same day that the home of Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was broken into.
According to grand jury indictments in federal court in New York City, Dimitriy Nezhinskiy and Juan Villar have been reselling stolen jewelry, watches, and other costly items at their Manhattan pawn store since 2020 after purchasing them from several burglary squads, some of whom were from South America.
Burrow is not named as a victim in the court filings. On Dec. 9, the day of the break-in at Burrow’s house while he and the Bengals were playing in Dallas, prosecutors claimed to have evidence, including phone records, that connected Nezhinskiy to suspects in a theft that occurred close to Cincinnati. An email sent Tuesday night was not immediately answered by a U.S. attorney’s office representative.
Following the indictment of four Chilean men in connection with what the Ohio attorney general described as a series of break-ins at multimillion-dollar residences, Nezhinskiy and Villar were charged. He would not, however, specify if professional athletes were the targets.
The four males were taken into custody in Ohio last month when they were discovered in an SUV wearing a Cincinnati Bengals helmet and a shirt from Louisiana State University. According to an affidavit, both were allegedly taken from the home outside of Cincinnati on December 9. Burrow was an LSU student-athlete.
Villar, 48, of the Queens neighborhood of New York City, and Nezhinskiy, 43, a Georgian national who resides in North Bergen, New Jersey, were taken into custody on Tuesday and are set to be arraigned in court on Wednesday. They are accused of receiving stolen goods on several occasions.
Nezhinskiy’s attorney did not immediately respond calls or emails on Tuesday night. Villar does not currently have a counsel listed in court documents.
According to a statement from U.S. Attorney John J. Durham, “by buying stolen watches, jewelry, and other luxury items and then reselling them in their New York City store, the defendants created an illicit market and fueled demand for burglaries by South American Theft Groups and other crews around the country.”
According to the prosecution, a significant quantity of alleged stolen material was discovered at the two men’s place of business and at Nezhinskiy’s storage facilities in New Jersey.
The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office reported that Burrow’s home was broken into, looted, and had a broken bedroom window, but no one was hurt.
Burrow later remarked, “I feel like my privacy has been violated in more than one way.” “There is a lot more out there than I would like to disclose.”
