Pawn shop owner sentenced to 6 years for trafficking stolen goods, child pornography
FILE - Generic gavel on wooden table.
SEATTLE - The owner of two King County pawn shops was sentenced to six years in prison for trafficking stolen goods and possession of child pornography.
46-year-old Aleksandr Pavlovskiy pleaded guilty in Oct. 2021 to the charges, and was sentenced Tuesday.
"This case highlights the tremendous value we place in state and federal law enforcement teamwork. The investigation began through the patient, dedicated work of an Auburn Police detective, who reached out to the FBI. It is through this sort of teamwork that we can root out all manner of crimes," said U.S. Attorney Nick Brown. "While the stolen property case is what brought us here, the possession of child pornography demonstrates the damage Mr. Pavlovskiy inflicted on the larger community."
Court records say employees at Pavlovskiy’s two pawn shops, Thrift Electro in Renton and Innovation Best in Kent, were directed to buy stolen goods from shoplifters and delivery drivers. The employees paid these illegal suppliers in cash.
Pavlovskiy established a warehouse in Kent in 2016, where workers used heat guns and scrapers to remove tags from the items, photographed them and listed them for sale on eBay and Amazon.
The Department of Justice says Pavlovskiy shipped "hundreds of thousands" of stolen items across the United States, generating between $1.5–3.5 million in sales.
In 2018, an Auburn Police detective noticed a substantial amount of stolen goods being sold at Pavlovskiy’s stores. In 2019, state and federal law enforcement served search warrants on Pavlovskiy’s home, cars and shops, where they found rack after rack of stolen goods being processed for resale.
They also found more than 20,000 images and videos of child pornography on Pavlovskiy’s electronic devices.
Pavlovskiy was sentenced to two years on the child pornography counts and four years on the trafficking charges, followed by 15 years of supervised release, and must register as a sex offender. Pavlovskiy must also pay $2,000 in restitution each to six of at least 65 known sexual abuse victims identified during the investigation.
Stolen property recovered during the investigation is being returned to the victim retailers.
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