Joe Burrow didn’t need a Batmobile to bring a few jokers to justice.
Authorities in New York have secured a pair of guilty pleas from pawn-shop managers who bought and sold items stolen from the Bengals quarterback’s home last December.
On Friday, 43-year-old Dimitriy Nezhinskiy pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to receive stolen property. He faces up to five years in prison, restitution of roughly $2.5 million, and forfeiture of more than $2.5 million. He also faces potential deportation.
“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, via ESPN.com. “His purchases perpetuated a ripple of criminality targeting residences and businesses across the country.”
“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 statement. “It was a deliberate operation that helped professional burglars prey on innocent people.”
Nezhinskiy’s plea comes a month after 48-year-old Juan Villar pleaded guilty in June to the same charge. He co-managed the pawn shop in question.
Basically, Nezhinskiy and Villar created the incentive for others to conduct the burglaries, by making it clear that they’d provide cash for the items that were stolen. Multiple members of the ring of thieves were arrested earlier this year; they’ve been charged with the Burrow caper and other burglaries.
Burrow, who abandoned a plan to buy a $3 million replica Batmobile after the burglary, said during the Quarterback series about the theft, “It just felt like the kind of year that it was.”
Maybe the guilty pleas are a sign that this year will be different for Burrow and the Bengals.
