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Former sports collectibles king Bill Mastro, known for Honus Wagner card, will plead guilty to fraud
Mastro will apparently acknowledge at the February hearing that he altered the world's most valuable trading card, a Honus Wagner T206 that has fetched millions of dollars in a series of high-profile transactions, including a 1991 sale for $451,000 to NHL legend Wayne Gretzky and former Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall.
BY MICHAEL O'KEEFFE / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
PUBLISHED: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2012, 7:45 PM
UPDATED: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2012, 10:43 PM
Bill Mastro will sign papers that change his plea from not guilty to guilty.
Bill Mastro, the one-time king of sports collectibles who was indicted on a count of fraud in July — and accused of trimming the world’s most expensive baseball card — has agreed to plead guilty to fraud.
Mastro, the founder of Mastro Auctions and once the most important figure in sports memorabilia, has signed the plea agreement that changes his not-guilty plea to guilty, according to papers filed in Chicago federal court by the United States Attorney's office for northern Illinois.
Prosecutors Nancy DePodesta and Steven Grimes asked the court to set a change of plea hearing for early February. Mastro's attorneys support the request, the papers said.
"I have said all along that we intend to resolve this without a trial," said Michael Monico, one of Mastro's attorneys. "Bill Mastro is cooperating with the government."
Mastro pleaded not guilty in July after a federal grand jury handed down a 16-count indictment that said the former king of cards and his associates Doug Allen and Mark Theotikos routinely defrauded customers, rigged auctions and inflated prices paid by unwitting bidders.
Allen was also indicted on 14 counts of wire and mail fraud, while Theotikos was indicted on six counts of wire and mail fraud. Allen and Theotikos have both pleaded not guilty. A former Mastro Auctions employee, William Boehm, was charged with one count of making false statements to the FBI agents who investigated the company's practices. Boehm has also pleaded not guilty.
Mastro will apparently acknowledge at the February hearing that he altered the world's most valuable trading card, a Honus Wagner T206 that has fetched millions of dollars in a series of high-profile transactions, including a 1991 sale for $451,000 to NHL legend Wayne Gretzky and former Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall.
The card, christened as the "Gretzky T206 Wagner," was on loan to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown until March. Its latest sale was to Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick, who paid a record $2.8 million for the card.
It has long been believed in the collectibles hobby that the Gretzky T206 Wagner had been altered, which would significantly reduce its value to collectors.
In "The Card: Collectors, Con Men and the True Story of History's Most Desired Baseball Card," Daily News reporters Michael O'Keeffe and Teri Thompson reported that Mastro bought the Wagner card in 1985 at a Hicksville, L.I. collectibles shop for $25,000.
The card, which O'Keeffe and Thompson reported had been cut from a printer's sheet, was further trimmed by Mastro to make it appear as if it has been carefully preserved for decades after it was removed from a pack of cigarettes in 1909.
The upgrade not only improved the appearance of the card, but it increased its value significantly and helped spark the trading card and sports memorabilia boom of the 1980s and 1990s.
Monico said Mastro has been soliciting character references from collectors and dealers that will be submitted to the judge who ultimately sentences Mastro after he pleads guilty.
Some hobby insiders, however, say that they are reluctant to express support for a man they suspect ripped them off — especially since, they say, Mastro does not appear to accept responsibility for his actions.
"Just when I thought Bill Mastro could not be a more brazen and unrepentant criminal, he's now going to victims of his fraud asking for letters to be read at his sentencing," says New York attorney Jeff Lichtman, a longtime vintage card collector.
"He's claiming that he was indicted due to people with axes to grind. He's delusional."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/i-...#ixzz2DgFhbaBO
Mastro will apparently acknowledge at the February hearing that he altered the world's most valuable trading card, a Honus Wagner T206 that has fetched millions of dollars in a series of high-profile transactions, including a 1991 sale for $451,000 to NHL legend Wayne Gretzky and former Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall.
BY MICHAEL O'KEEFFE / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
PUBLISHED: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2012, 7:45 PM
UPDATED: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2012, 10:43 PM
Bill Mastro will sign papers that change his plea from not guilty to guilty.
Bill Mastro, the one-time king of sports collectibles who was indicted on a count of fraud in July — and accused of trimming the world’s most expensive baseball card — has agreed to plead guilty to fraud.
Mastro, the founder of Mastro Auctions and once the most important figure in sports memorabilia, has signed the plea agreement that changes his not-guilty plea to guilty, according to papers filed in Chicago federal court by the United States Attorney's office for northern Illinois.
Prosecutors Nancy DePodesta and Steven Grimes asked the court to set a change of plea hearing for early February. Mastro's attorneys support the request, the papers said.
"I have said all along that we intend to resolve this without a trial," said Michael Monico, one of Mastro's attorneys. "Bill Mastro is cooperating with the government."
Mastro pleaded not guilty in July after a federal grand jury handed down a 16-count indictment that said the former king of cards and his associates Doug Allen and Mark Theotikos routinely defrauded customers, rigged auctions and inflated prices paid by unwitting bidders.
Allen was also indicted on 14 counts of wire and mail fraud, while Theotikos was indicted on six counts of wire and mail fraud. Allen and Theotikos have both pleaded not guilty. A former Mastro Auctions employee, William Boehm, was charged with one count of making false statements to the FBI agents who investigated the company's practices. Boehm has also pleaded not guilty.
Mastro will apparently acknowledge at the February hearing that he altered the world's most valuable trading card, a Honus Wagner T206 that has fetched millions of dollars in a series of high-profile transactions, including a 1991 sale for $451,000 to NHL legend Wayne Gretzky and former Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall.
The card, christened as the "Gretzky T206 Wagner," was on loan to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown until March. Its latest sale was to Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick, who paid a record $2.8 million for the card.
It has long been believed in the collectibles hobby that the Gretzky T206 Wagner had been altered, which would significantly reduce its value to collectors.
In "The Card: Collectors, Con Men and the True Story of History's Most Desired Baseball Card," Daily News reporters Michael O'Keeffe and Teri Thompson reported that Mastro bought the Wagner card in 1985 at a Hicksville, L.I. collectibles shop for $25,000.
The card, which O'Keeffe and Thompson reported had been cut from a printer's sheet, was further trimmed by Mastro to make it appear as if it has been carefully preserved for decades after it was removed from a pack of cigarettes in 1909.
The upgrade not only improved the appearance of the card, but it increased its value significantly and helped spark the trading card and sports memorabilia boom of the 1980s and 1990s.
Monico said Mastro has been soliciting character references from collectors and dealers that will be submitted to the judge who ultimately sentences Mastro after he pleads guilty.
Some hobby insiders, however, say that they are reluctant to express support for a man they suspect ripped them off — especially since, they say, Mastro does not appear to accept responsibility for his actions.
"Just when I thought Bill Mastro could not be a more brazen and unrepentant criminal, he's now going to victims of his fraud asking for letters to be read at his sentencing," says New York attorney Jeff Lichtman, a longtime vintage card collector.
"He's claiming that he was indicted due to people with axes to grind. He's delusional."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/i-...#ixzz2DgFhbaBO
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