Idaho-based, multi-million dollar fraud case headed to court
BOISE, Idaho (KIFI)-The U.S. District Court in Boise will hold a hearing January 26 focused on a defendants’ right to a public trial in the age of COVID.
Pavel Babichenko and eight other defendants face a 34-count federal indictment for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit trademark goods, and money laundering conspiracy.
The defendants include: Pavel Babichenko, Gennady Babitchenko, Piotr Babichenko, Timofey Babichenko, Kristina Babichenko, Natalya Babichenko, David Bibikov, Anna Iyerusalimets, Mikeal Iyerusalimets, and Atrur Pupko. The grand jury returned its indictments on August 14, 2018.
The defendants are set for trial in June.  The January 26 hearing focuses on a court plan to use modified trial procedures, including livestreaming of trial proceedings to a secondary viewing location.
According to a grand jury indictment, “the defendants operated a multi-million dollar scheme wherein they sold counterfeit cellphones and cellphone accessories on Amazon.com and eBay.com that the defendants misrepresented as new and genuine Apple and Samsung products. The indictment further alleges that these counterfeit cellphones and cellphone accessories were obtained in bulk from manufacturers in Hong Kong, repackaged in Idaho, and then individually resold to consumers online as genuine and new. The conspirators also allegedly laundered millions of dollars in proceeds from the fraudulent scheme.”
 If convicted, each of the defendants could face up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine on the money laundering, wire fraud, and mail fraud counts. They could face up to 10 years in prison and a $5 million fine on the counterfeit trademark goods trafficking counts.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Homeland Security, Internal Revenue Service, and United States Postal Inspection Service.
