A pawn shop owner in Washington made up to $3.5 million selling stolen goods after listing them on Amazon and eBay, federal officials said.
Aleksandr Pavlovskiy, 46, of Auburn was sentenced to six years in prison after being charged with trafficking in stolen goods and possession of child pornography, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Washington said in a news release.
A defense attorney for Pavlovskiy told McClatchy News they did not have a comment on his sentencing.
Pavlovskiy is accused of directing employees to buy stolen items from shoplifters at his two pawn shops in Kent and Renton, according to the release.
Stolen items were also purchased at his shops from delivery drivers who officials said stole the packages and sold them to Pavlovskiy’s businesses, the news release said.
The business owner began selling repackaged stolen items in 2016 until 2019, prosecutors said.
Detectives pieced together the scheme after noticing a large amount of stolen items showing up at Pavlovskiy’s businesses, prosecutors said.
After serving search warrants on his business, authorities said they found “racks of stolen goods” ready to be resold.
Law enforcement confiscated Pavlovskiy’s electronic devices while executing the search warrant and found over 20,000 images and videos of child pornography, the news release said.
In addition to six years in prison, Pavlovskiy was sentenced to 15 years of supervised release and ordered to pay $12,000 in restitution to six of the sexual abuse victims, feds said. He will be required to register as a sex offender.
Prosecutors said 65 sexual abuse victims were identified during the investigation.
