An 82-year-old Colorado man sold $800,000 of fake sports trading cards, including some with images of basketball star Michael Jordan, according to federal prosecutors in New York.
(Bloomberg) — An 82-year-old Colorado man sold $800,000 of fake sports trading cards, including some with images of basketball star Michael Jordan, according to federal prosecutors in New York.
Mayo Gilbert McNeil was arrested Wednesday in Denver and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, the US Department of Justice said in a statement. He’s scheduled to first appear in a Colorado court, and then will be arraigned in Brooklyn at a later date, prosecutors said.
Between April 2015 and July 2019, McNeil and others intentionally misled consumers by falsely marketing sports trading cards as authentic, according to the indictment. They allegedly obtained authentic certification from a third-party grading service for collectibles and then placed those labels on the fake cards, prosecutors said.
In 2017, McNeil defrauded one customer by trading three fake Jordan cards for two cards depicting football star Tom Brady, according to the indictment. In 2019, McNeil sold a Jordan card for $4,500 that the buyer alleged was counterfeit, prosecutors said.
Attempts to reach an attorney for McNeil weren’t immediately successful.
The case is US v. McNeil, 23-MJ-203, US District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).
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