FBI investigates body found in bags
Authorities allege the victim is a Brooklyn man caught in extortion plot
The FBI is investigating whether a body stuffed in two duffel bags and dumped behind an Ellenville home is a missing Brooklyn man who disappeared after going into business with two men to sell high-end watches, federal authorities allege.
The grim saga began June 25, when the victim left his Brooklyn apartment in a frantic attempt to pay the men part of $500,000 they claimed he owed them.
On Feb. 21, FBI agents found what they suspect to be his remains stashed in two duffel bags behind a house on Ulster Heights Road in Ellenville. He was shot to death, federal prosecutors revealed Wednesday.
A state police spokesman described the area as a possible mob dumping ground from decades ago, but had no information about the remains.
The feds arrested one of the two suspects, Shlomo Patchiav, 42, and charged him with extortion and are investigating him and others, “… in connection with the extortion and apparent murder of Victim-1 who went missing from Brooklyn,
New York, on or about June 25, 2022,” according to a criminal complaint written by an agent with the FBI’s Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force.
Patchiav’s unnamed accomplice flew to the Republic of Georgia at the end of June, authorities said.
Law enforcement sources said the victim is believed to be Shehroz Tokhirov, 43, who left his Kensington apartment the morning of June 25 and never returned. His daughter refused to talk to the Daily News.
John Marzulli, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Brooklyn said that the body remains unidentified pending DNA testing.
Patchiav, who’s accused of federal extortion charges, was ordered released on $350,000 bond after a hearing scheduled in Brooklyn Federal Court Wednesday afternoon.
“Shehroz was a good man and a brother to the community,” said a friend who works at the Masjid Imam Abu Hanifa-Light of Hope mosque, near where Tokhirov worked. “He owned cleaning businesses that serviced hotels in Ohio before he came to New York.”
Police visited the mosque shortly after the disappearance looking for tips.
“The investigation has gone nowhere,” the friend told The News. “We fear the worst.”
According to the criminal complaint, the victim and his son first met with Patchiav and his accomplice on June 17, to talk about possibly selling highend watches.
The criminal complaint doesn’t go into detail, but things went south fast for the victim, and both men started demanding he pay them $500,000.
On June 25, the man left his home at about 9:45 a.m. with a black shopping bag, hoping to placate the men by giving Patchiav’s accomplice about $100,000 in cash, another $30,000 from his bank account, and his Mercedes.
His family never saw or spoke to him again, but surveillance footage and bank records revealed some hints of his movement, according to the complaint.
That day, he and Patchiav’s accomplice visited a notary in Brooklyn to sign a statement saying that if he didn’t pay the debt by 11:59 p.m., he’d give up ownership of his Mercedes.
The victim also issued a $20,000 bank check to Patchiav’s accomplice, and withdrew $10,000 in cash.
Later that day, at about 5:40 p.m., Patchiav’s accomplice went to a car dealership in Huntington,
Penn., and bought a Chevy Malibu for $2,500, according to the complaint.
The car was a junker, and the dealer explained it had electrical problems, but the man said he only needed it for one trip to Brooklyn.
Nearly three hours after that, Patchiav’s accomplice was caught on video buying duffel bags in Brooklyn, the complaint said.
The next day, June 26, a tow truck picked up the Chevy Malibu in Brooklyn at the request of an unknown caller, and hauled it to the Ellenville home.
Witnesses saw Patchiav’s accomplice in Ellenville using a hammer to break the rear window of the Malibu to get inside, the complaint alleges. He removed documents from the glove box, and garbage and tools from the trunk. He then used a garden hose to wash down the Malibu, and the tools, the complaint alleges.
On June 27, Patchiav’s cohort bought a ticket for a Turkish Airlines flight from Kennedy Airport to the Republic of Georgia, departing the next day.
Authorities stopped him before he boarded, and he acknowledged that he knew the victim and that the man owed him money for high end watches he and Patchiav gave him to sell.