Colorado Springs Top Dollar Pawn Shop Owner Sentenced 8 Years Community Corrections After $1.4M

On April 26, 2024, Mischa Jargowsky — a 61-year-old co-owner of Top Dollar Pawn, a four-location pawnbroker chain operating across Colorado Springs and Pueblo, Colorado — was sentenced to eight years in community corrections after an El Paso County jury found her guilty on February 1, 2024, of one count of pattern of racketeering and multiple counts of money laundering, part of a 29-count indictment filed in the Fourth Judicial District that also named co-defendants Jack Jargowsky, Daria Mauro, and Walt Mauro. A joint FBI and Colorado Springs Police Department investigation, launched in April 2021, determined the scheme had operated continuously since early 2018, with Jargowsky and her co-defendants systematically purchasing new, still-packaged merchandise from organized retail thieves known as boosters who were stealing from big-box stores throughout southern Colorado, then reselling the stolen goods through the pawn shops and an associated eBay storefront for profit. Court records show more than $1.4 million was transferred from Top Dollar Pawn accounts into shell businesses controlled by Jack Jargowsky, with an additional $1.8 million moved into personal accounts. On June 22, 2022, U.S. Marshals and FBI agents simultaneously raided all four store locations and the Jargowsky residence, seeking civil seizure warrants covering 17 bank accounts and four ATMs. At sentencing, Jargowsky offered no apology to the retailers whose losses ultimately raised prices for every consumer in the communities her stores claimed to serve. - - Disclaimer: This video is a dramatization based on real events. Some visual content was created with artificial intelligence assistance. Some details have been fictionalized and all names have been changed to protect the privacy of those involved.