FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A person who owns a number of South Florida pawn retailers is dealing with federal fees as a part of what prosecutors say is a multi-million greenback scheme to launder cash, together with drug proceeds, utilizing fraudulent reward playing cards and cash orders.
Andrey Perov, 38, was booked into the Broward County jail and made his preliminary look in Fort Lauderdale federal court docket on Wednesday.
According to court docket paperwork, he owns Bee Pawn LLC, with areas in Miami-Dade, Broward and Orange counties and Hard Rock Giffies, a pawn shop at 5814 Stirling Road in Hollywood.
Prosecutors mentioned Perov got here on their radar after a confidential supply, cooperating with authorities after a Broward drug trafficking conviction, informed investigators {that a} co-conspirator of Perov had laundered drug cash for him.
According to FBI charging paperwork, in 2021, the confidential informant, then working for federal brokers, requested the co-conspirator to launder $110,000 in narcotics proceeds.
FBI brokers mentioned that the co-conspirator didn’t need to launder the money, however he knew somebody who may: Perov.
Investigators recorded an undercover interview with Perov in January 2021, the place he informed the informant that he owned a number of South Florida pawn retailers and “could always use U.S. currency to purchase ‘gift cards,’” the court docket paperwork state.
An FBI agent mentioned in the interview, the informant expressed concern concerning the supply of the cash.
“I don’t want it to come back and haunt me,” the informant informed Perov, in accordance to court docket paperwork. “This is dirty money. You know, this is drug money that I did…a while back…Selling pills and stuff like that.”
The charging paperwork state Perov then requested, “Selling what?”
“Huh?” prosecutors mentioned the informant responded. “Selling pills.”
“Pills? OK,” Perov is accused of responding. “No, I don’t judge.”
Perov then agreed to launder $11,000 for the informant and deposit the proceeds in the informant’s checking account, which was really managed by legislation enforcement, FBI brokers allege, and instructed the informant to cope with his assistant for future cash laundering endeavors.
Agents mentioned Perov’s assistant laundered $99,000 for the informant over the next months.
Then, in accordance to court docket paperwork, from December 2021 to November 2022, a second confidential informant, a Russian speaker, supplied Perov’s assistant with $540,000 price of FBI-purchased reward playing cards and bought $460,000 again.
“According to Co-Conspirator 2, (Perov) mentioned on more than one occasion that the pawn shops needed to have a money transmitting license to conduct the business of redeeming the gift cards and money orders,” court docket paperwork state. “However, (Perov) never obtained either a Federal or State money remitting license.”
Further, the court docket paperwork state that the co-conspirator ”estimated that roughly 70% of all reward playing cards and 100% of all cash orders that have been bought to (Perov)’s shops have been fraudulent.”
“The Co-Conspirator explained that there was no legitimate reason why someone would want to sell a money order to the store since money orders could already be used to pay bills, rent, etc. They were as liquid as cash,” brokers wrote.
The co-conspirator mentioned, in accordance to the FBI, that she or he believed that many of the reward playing cards and cash orders bought to Perov’s shops got here from “suspicious” folks concerned in “criminal activity,” explaining that “generally no photo identification was taken from certain individuals who were selling large quantities of gift cards/money orders to the store.”
“The Co-Conspirator recalled that sometimes when photo identifications were requested, the male customers provided a female’s photo identification card,” brokers wrote.
Authorities later obtained a search warrant to undergo a web-based ledger maintained by Perov, which confirmed that his pawn retailers redeemed roughly $53 million in cash orders and reward playing cards, roughly $2 million of which have been denied “due to fraud or theft,” court docket paperwork state.
Some of Perov’s high prospects used obvious pseudonyms to conceal their true identities, authorities allege.
Names listed on the ledger, they mentioned, included “Tom Hanks,” “Michael Jackson” and “Fats Fatz” and lots of profiles didn’t have a corresponding identification card, court docket paperwork state.
Some prospects redeemed a whole bunch of 1000’s of {dollars} price of reward playing cards every, authorities allege.
Perov is dealing with fees of conspiracy to launder financial devices and conspiracy to have interaction in financial transactions in property derived from a specified illegal exercise and opening a cash transmitting enterprise and not using a license.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Panayotta Augustin‐Birch ordered Perov stay held on pretrial detention, in accordance to on-line information.
He was being held in the Broward Main Jail as of Thursday morning.
Read the court docket paperwork:
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