Kew Gardens high end wholesale jeweler Israeli national Shlomo Patchiav, also known as “Slava Fatkhiev,” last week was found guilty of conspiring to extort Shehroz Tokhirov, an Uzbekistani immigrant from Brighton Beach, Brooklyn related to a $500K luxury watch deal. Shlomo’s co-conspirator in the extortion plot, one Sanat Djumayev, of Uzbekistan was not charged with any crime. Sanat took a flight to the Republic of Georgia, which isn’t far from Uzbekistan, in June of 2022, a day after Shehroz disappeared, never to return.

Shehroz disappeared after giving Sanat the keys to his Mercedes and tens of thousands of dollars in cash. Sanat’s body was eventually found decomposing with a bullet in his head, in two duffel bags in upstate New York in Ellenville, in an area known to locals as a “Russian mob dumping ground.” Shlomo was left holding the bags. Shlomo was indicted for extortion but not murder, as there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Shlomo with murder. Shlomo was observing the Sabbath at the time of the murder.

Shlomo turned his phone off at around 8:13 PM Friday evening, the night before the murder. Before he turned off his phone he gave Sanat the keys to his brothers Jeep Cherokee. Shlomo got text messages from Sanat at 8:40PM indicating that Shehroz was going to give Sanat the keys to his Mercedes and tens of thousands in cash. Shlomo did not respond to the text messages, as the Sabbath had already started and Shlomo did not use his phone on the Sabbath.

On Saturday morning Sanat met Shehroz at TD Bank in Brooklyn and picked up the cash and the keys to Shehroz’s Mercedes. Sanat most likely shot and killed Shehroz after picking up the cash and keys. At the time of the murder Shlomo was most likely doing L’Chaim’s at the kiddush table. Sanat then drove Shlomo’s brother’s Cherokee to Shlomo’s place in Kew Gardens on Saturday night after sundown. Shlomo and Sanat drove to Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, where Shehroz lived and picked up the Mercedes. They drove the Mercedes to Long Island at around 5 am on Sunday, left it in Long Island, and then went back to Brighton Beach.

Sanat purchased a $2500 Chevy Malibu from a used car dealer in Pennsylvania in cash, without any paperwork, and left the Malibu near Shehroz’s apartment in Brighton Beach. Sanat hired a tow truck to pick up the Malibu on Sunday morning to drive the Malibu all the way up to Ellenville, NY from Brighton Beach. Shlomo and Sanat followed the tow truck to Ellenville in Shlomo’s brother’s Cherokee. Shlomo did the driving. Shlomo claimed at trial that he didn’t know anything about a murder and was paid $500 to drive Sanat to Ellenville. They went to a house owned by Sanat’s landlord’s father. Shlomo took the owner of the house out shopping for groceries while Sanat stayed behind with the Malibu. When the owner and Shlomo returned to the house Sanat was seen hosing down the trunk of the Malibu. The Feds later found Shlomo’s baseball hat in the trunk of the Mercedes with Shlomo’s DNA on the hat, along with DNA evidence of other individuals who were not located. At trial Shlomo argued that it was possible that Sanat found Shlomo’s hat in the Cherokee, wore the hat and then threw it into the Malibu. Talk about a set up.

Its not clear what actually happened with these guys as Sanat is hiding out in Uzbekistan or the Republic of Georgia, Shehroz is dead, and Shlomo isn’t talking. The Feds were able to track Shlomo all over New York with cell phone towers and toll and video cameras located all over the highways. Sanat was clearly a professional hit man, probably for the Russian mob. Sanat took a flight out of the country the day after the murder and left behind numerous pieces of evidence that implicated Shlomo.

I believe Shlomo gave Shehroz $500K in luxury watches for Shehroz on consignment to resell in Brooklyn. When Shehroz couldn’t sell the watches Shlomo and Sanat demanded $500K. Shehroz either decided not to return the watches, or offered less than the $500K for the watches.

After Shehroz was killed his family reached out to Shlomo and Sanat. Shlomo said he had no idea what happened to Shehroz. Sanat told the family to leave money at his old apartment in New York, as he was in Uzbekistan or Georgia, and he would give them information about what happened to Shehroz. He told the family the following: “I told you I would find him. If you could solve this in the next 2-3 days it would be good. Please, I need the money . . . I need to protect myself in Israel too and everywhere else I want to protect myself. In Israel, I won’t get the money, my people will get the money . . . I need to get the money but I won’t be the one getting it, my people will because I don’t want to put myself at risk.”

The big question is why was the religiously observant Shlomo involved with a Russian / Israeli hit man? During the years that the case dragged on in Federal Court, Shlomo was under house arrest with an ankle bracelet. At one point Shlomo asked that he be granted permission to travel to the high end Ocean Place Resort and Spa in Long Branch, NJ to attend a retreat sponsored by EMET Outreach, for “religious couple’s counseling.” I don’t think couples counseling will save this marriage. Shlomo is facing 10-20 years in Federal prison.

There is a lot more to this story, but dead men tell no tales.

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