A South Florida pawn shop owner is the latest to be snagged in the feds' net on charges of laundering millions, including dough purportedly dirty from drug deals, through his chain of shops using fake gift cards and sham money orders. Andrey Perov, 38, the proprietor of Bee Pawn LLC which operates across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Orange counties, was cuffed and appeared in Fort Lauderdale federal court this Wednesday, as per federal authorities.
Perov's scheme entered the crosshairs of the law after a tip from a snitch, who was singing to the authorities following a Broward drug trafficking song and dance, indicated he had a crony in Perov who cleaned his cash, according to an Local 10 News report. The alleged dirty dealings came to light back in 2021, when an undercover informant, working on behalf of the federal agents, solicited Perov's help to launder 110 large of narcotics proceeds.
During a covertly recorded yak in January 2021, Perov, unbeknownst to him speaking with a federal agent's snitch, said he "could always use U.S. currency to purchase 'gift cards,'" the feds asserted. The informant voiced worry over the money's shady origins stating, "I don't want it to come back and haunt me," and clarifying, "This is dirty money. You know, this is drug money that I did...a while back...Selling pills and stuff like that," to which Perov reportedly responded, "Pills? OK, no, I don't judge," as per the report of Local 10 News.
But Perov, perhaps, should have exercised more judgment. Not only did he allegedly agree to cleanse a cool $11,000 for the canary, but court documents obtained by a source also claim that he roped in his assistant to wash another $99,000. Between December 2021 and November 2022, a second informant, this one speaking Russian, provided Perov's assistant with $540,000 in gift cards — which were actually bought by the FBI — and received just $460,000 in return, ribbon-tied with incriminating evidence.
The ledger Perov kept online, which was laid bare by a search warrant, showed his pawn shops swiped approximately $53 million in money orders and gift cards. Authorities said some of Perov's favorite clients on the ledger tried to cover their tracks with clearly bogus names such as "Tom Hanks," "Michael Jackson," and "Fats Fatz." Many profiles listed had no matching IDs, an anonymized masquerade to likely cloud their real-world villainy.
Perov is now facing a rap sheet that includes charges of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, conspiracy to engage in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity, and running a money transmitting business without a proper license. As of now, he's cooling his heels in the clink at Broward Main Jail as ordered by U.S. Magistrate Judge Panayotta Augustin‐Birch, according to online records–and of course, in the eyes of the law, he's presumed innocent until proven guilty.
