In 2017, Avtandil Khurtsidze was the WBO interim title holder and mandatory contender in the middleweight division, heading for a showdown with Billy Joe Saunders. He has a pro record of 33-2-2. But his career came screeching to a halt when he was accused, and then convicted, of serving as an enforcer for the "Shulaya Enterprise," a criminal organization allegedly centered in the Russian-immigrant section of Brooklyn, New York that operated gambling parlors, extorted payments from gamblers and local businesses, trafficked in stolen goods and contraband cigarettes, committed identity theft, credit card fraud, and engaged in a conspiracy to defraud casinos. Prosecutors said that Khurtisdze was Shulaya's primary enforcer. Khurtsidze received a ten-year prison sentence but his attorneys recently argued an appeal in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City. The appeal focused primarily on the length of the sentence but also seeks to overturn the conviction itself.  

 

The head of the enterprise, Razhden Shulaya, was sentenced to 45 years in prison. Khurtsidze's ten-year sentence was the second longest among the several defendants in this case, with all  others receiving shorter sentences.

 

According to his court filings, Khurtsidze was training and living in the Republic of Georgia before the United States government lured him back to arrest him, this being his first criminal prosecution. Again, according to the boxer's defense team, his role in the Shulaya Enterprise was limited to collecting a poker debt and two assaults that resulted in no hospitalization or serious injury, and those supposedly minimal actions resulted in a conviction for racketeering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy. The district court sentenced him to ten years on each count, but allowed them to run concurrently [at the same time]. Still, Khurtsidze's attorneys complain the ten years was more than double what is recommended under federal sentencing guidelines range. The judge used a sentencing multiplier not applied to any other defendant in the case.

 

Khurtsidze's attorneys appealed the length of the sentence, arguing that the district court gave him ten years for a relatively minor offense because of Khurtsidze’s national origin (Georgian) and the judge's desire to "send a message” to other foreigners who might seek “to come to the shores of the United States.”  Khurtsidze’s status as a foreign national would therefore serve “to convey and be a vehicle for a message of general deterrence” to “the Georgian community, both here and abroad.” The quoted language was from the sentencing judge and serves as the basis for the appeal asking that Khurtsidze’s conviction and sentence to be vacated.

 

A ruling on the appeal is expected in a few weeks.