Merab Dvalishvili has spent the better part of this year cementing his standing as one of the UFC’s biggest bantamweight stars, but a resurfaced set of photographs has pulled his name into a very different conversation, one involving federal racketeering charges, a Manhattan courtroom, and a sentence of 45 years behind bars.
The images, which circulated widely on social media and were picked up on Reddit, show Dvalishvili alongside Razhden Shulaya, a man federal prosecutors identified as a senior figure in an Eastern European organized network operating out of New York.
Shulaya, who also went by the name Razhden Pitersky, carried the designation of “thief in law,” a title used within certain post-Soviet cr()minal hierarchies to denote leadership status earned through loyalty to an underworld code rather than through any legitimate business dealing.
A federal judge did not mince words when describing Shulaya’s place in that hierarchy at sentencing, calling him “the main boss of Eastern European cr()me in New York, and even on the entire East Coast of the United States.”
The case against Shulaya, prosecuted under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, painted a picture of an operation with its hands in an unusually wide array of illicit ventures. Prosecutors detailed a v()olent clash with a rival Armenian faction that left several members with permanent injuries, along with a scheme in which operatives slipped clonidine, a sedative, into the drinks of patrons at entertainment venues before robbing them while they were incapacitated.
Perhaps the most unusual chapter involved a Russian programmer who had developed software capable of manipulating slot machine outcomes. According to court records, Shulaya’s network had the hacker taken by force so the technology could be deployed inside casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, turning a technical exploit into a multi-state operation.
The group’s portfolio didn’t stop there. Investigators tied the network to credit card fr()ud, extortion, document forgery, cargo theft, and the trafficking of w()apons and n()rcotics. Stolen luxury watches and contraband cigarettes moved through the operation’s supply lines, and in one particularly striking episode, members orchestrated the theft of more than five tons of chocolate, which was later offloaded on the black market.
According to accounts shared alongside the images, the relationship between Dvalishvili and Shulaya stretches back to at least 2016, years before Dvalishvili earned his spot on the UFC roster. During that period, Shulaya reportedly showed up to support the young competitor at his early bouts, long before the Georgian-born athlete became a 135 lbs (61 kg) titleholder on one of the sport’s biggest stages.
The Shulaya network’s reach into combat sports didn’t end with Dvalishvili, either. Among those connected to the organization was Avtandil Khurtsidze, the former WBO interim middleweight boxing titleholder.
