Eli and Giants Fake Memorabilia lawsuit

[Eric]

More info on the lawsuit.

Eli Manning says he and NY Giants will fight lawsuit claiming they sold 'fake' sports collectibles

The suit claims that Giants employees created and sold dozens of fake items 'for personal gain.' The New Jersey memorabilia dealer -- Eric Inselberg -- who filed the lawsuit has a dubious past within the sports collectibles industry.

BY MICHAEL O'KEEFFE / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

PUBLISHED: THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2014, 8:39 AM
UPDATED: THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2014, 11:28 PM


The NY Giants say a lawsuit claiming that the team, as well as quarterback Eli Manning, sold fake memorabilia is 'without merit.'
Eli Manning and the New York Giants will wage a battle against what they called a meritless lawsuit filed Wednesday in New Jersey that claims that the quarterback and his team sold bogus “game-worn” jerseys, helmets and other bogus collectibles to unsuspecting customers.

“The Giants told me this suit is completely without merit and I have no reason to believe otherwise,” Manning said Thursday as his brother Peyton prepared to play in Sunday's Super Bowl. “The Giants are going to fight it and so will I.”

The New Jersey memorabilia dealer who filed the suit, in fact, has a dubious past — even by the dog-eat-dog standards of the sports collectibles industry. Eric Inselberg, who filed the complaint in Bergen County Superior Court, was linked in 2007 to a fake Michael Jordan warmup jacket scam that helped spark an exhaustive Chicago FBI investigation into fraud and corruption in the sports memorabilia industry that continues to this day.

Earlier this week, Chicago-based agents were among the federal law enforcement officers who raided and searched the Arkansas home and office of memorabilia dealer John Rogers, who owns one of the world’s largest photo archives, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

“The suit is completely without any merit whatsoever and we will defend it vigorously,” the Giants said in a statement. “We will not otherwise comment on pending litigation.”

Former NFL quarterback Archie Manning — the father of Eli and Peyton Manning — said the family was blind-sided by Inselberg’s allegations.

“It’s a bombshell, and it’s a bombshell to him, too,” Manning said Thursday of his son’s reaction. “Eli’s always tried to do what’s right. It’s Super Bowl week, and you’ve got to create a story out there but I don’t know anything about it.”

A Hall of Fame display featuring Eli Manning's game-worn helmet from Super Bowl XLII is actually a fake, according to a lawsuit filed by Eric Inselberg.
He later said the family would “get through that.”

The Chicago FBI investigation that included Inselberg also led Bill Mastro, the former owner of Mastro Auctions and once the most influential executive in sports memorabilia, to plead guilty to fraud in October and acknowledge that he had trimmed the world’s most valuable baseball card, a T206 Honus Wagner card once owned by NHL great Wayne Gretzky that sold for $2.8 million in 2007. He awaits sentencing in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

Inselberg was one of six memorabilia dealers accused of selling counterfeit game-used jerseys to trading card companies and other buyers in 2011. The other dealers pleaded guilty, but Inselberg chose to fight the charges.

The Justice Department dropped its case against Inselberg in May of 2013 after his lawyers claimed Giants employees and other witnesses had lied to federal agents and the Illinois grand jury that indicted Inselberg. The lawsuit, the court papers say, is an attempt to make the Giants accountable for the false statements that led to Inselberg’s indictment.

“When the government came knocking on the Giants’ door, the response was a cover-up that threw Inselberg under the bus,” the lawsuit claims.

The suit claims that Giants employees created and sold dozens of fake items “for personal gain and out of cold indifference to the importance fans and memorabilia collectors place on authentic pieces of sports history.”

The lawsuit by Eric Inselberg is filed a day before the NFL holds a press conference during Super Bowl week to detail efforts to stop the flow of counterfeit merchandise and tickets.
The suit alleges those items include a helmet on display at the Pro Football Hall of Fame that Manning purportedly wore during the team’s Super Bowl upset of the New England Patriots six years ago.

Manning, according to the suit, participated in the scheme because he wanted to keep items he wore in significant NFL contests. The fraud was well-known among Giants players and equipment managers, the lawsuit added.

New York attorney and sports memorabilia collector Jeff Lichtman told the Daily News that while he does not know if the allegations leveled against Manning are true, Inselberg’s suit is yet more evidence that collectors need to do their homework. Obtaining items directly from athletes or their reps doesn’t mean they are authentic.

“It should tell you something about the hobby that even when you get an item from players, it may not be the real deal,” Lichtman said. “You wouldn’t spend $100,000 on a car without checking it out. Why spend that kind of money on memorabilia without checking it out?”

NFL officials, meanwhile, remained tight-lipped about the allegations that Manning and Giants employees were involved in the sale of bogus memorabilia. Instead, they focused on warning consumers about criminals attempting to sell counterfeit NFL gear. “ The only thing I know about it is what I read this morning. There were allegations that were made. There hasn’t been any findings. There might not be,” Anastasia Danes, NFL vice president for legal affairs, told a press conference Thursday morning. “I don’t have a response. I don’t know anything about it other than what I read in the complaint in the story.”

John Sandweg, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the Internet has made it easier for counterfeiters to sell fraudulent items to sports fans. “Historically you would see it where it would go in the flea markets, and game vendors, but what we’ve seen is the criminal organizations are eliminating the middle man, creating sophisticated websites, and then selling it directly to the consumer,” Sandweg said. “It increases their profit margin. It also makes it more challenging for us.”

Inselberg may have dodged prosecution, but collectors and dealers remain suspicious of his role in the Jordan jersey scandal. Despite the scrutiny it led to of Mastro Auctions’ practices from the feds, the company’s officials sold the Jordan North Carolina warmup shirt at an Aug. 3, 2007, auction even though an authentication company had told the company it was an obvious fake.

Memorabilia Evaluation and Research Services concluded that while the item was indeed a North Carolina shooting shirt from the 1980s, it did not belong to Jordan. When placed over a light table, MEARS wrote, it was apparent that another name had been removed from the back and replaced with “Jordan.” The letters also seemed to made from materials different than that of other patches on the piece.

“The Michael Jordan shirt we evaluated did not start its life as a Michael Jordan shirt,” authenticator Troy Kinunen concluded.

A collector named Jim Reed told The News that stains on the apparel looked remarkably similar to a warmup shirt he had purchased from Ranzino Smith, who joined the Tar Heels in 1985, the year Jordan was drafted by the Chicago Bulls.

Reed said he sold the jersey to Inselberg in 2006. Inselberg told The News that he sold the shirt at a Westchester memorabilia show in January of 2007, but he didn’t know the buyer’s name and could not contact the man because he had paid cash.

Mastro Auctions sold the jersey for $11,000, but ultimately voided the sale. By then, however, the FBI investigation was in full swing. Mastro and two other auction house officials, Doug Allen and Mark Theotikos, were indicted on fraud charges in 2012. Allen and Theotikos have entered not guilty pleas and are awaiting trial.

Mastro Auctions was dissolved in 2009, and Allen and Theotikos later went on to form Legendary Auctions. Rogers, the Arkansas dealer, is an investor in the company. A spokesman for the United States Attorney in Chicago acknowledged that searches were conducted at Rogers’ office and home on Tuesday but said he could not comment further.

- With Christian Red



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/fo...#ixzz2rwoKEMkG

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/fo...icle-1.1596396

[Eric]

Here is a link to the entire lawsuit. Chock full of interesting nuggets

http://www.sportsmedia101.com/newyor...ntire-lawsuit/

[ousooner_85]

Eric....did you get the pm I sent you in the last week or two?

[Eric]

I did not.Let me check

[Eric]

Keith Olbermann did a segment on this tonight. Worth watching...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YFtI...ature=youtu.be

[jbean023]

The mlb program is a great program but also has flaws as no one is perfect. From what I have learned most authenticators have some kind of law background but there's not, for what I know of, an authenticator school. What do they get a month training class? I dont agree with authenticating used jerseys, bats, helmets, ect as issued just because they didn't see them worn either don't hologram them at all and get a team LOA or get a professional and photo match them to at least one game especially the pinstripes jerseys,bats,and helmets. They would have access to team photographers, video, ect. They had issues with a lot of WBC balls last year. I caught a Nady pinstripe mlb authenticated to opening day and the jersey didn't match, sent back to Steiner for refund, they resold to Krukscards, I told Kruk when they listed on ebay and not sure what happened to the jersey after that. I own a lot of Steiner items and I stand by them as most their Cubs jerseys show way more use and match more often than Cubs team LOAs. NFL had a rough year with selling jerseys to the wrong game. I think someone passionate and educated about game used should start an authentication company, training employees correctly and go to as many sporting events as possible, and take over authentication for nfl,mlb,nhl,and nba. Back to the Eli case, I just had to chime in on the mlb authentication thoughts.

[metsbats]

I suspect the "authenticators" who work for mlb are just auditors whose sole purpose is to ensure that the item is taken directly from the field or clubhouse into the hands of the team store. So there is no real authentication or research done. I alos suspect items may be also "authenticated" after the fact so what the player gives the team to be sold really relies on the integrity of the player.

[mbenga28]

Is the collector mentioned in this article a member here?

http://nypost.com/2014/01/31/collect...rookie-helmet/

[allstarsplus]

I suspect the "authenticators" who work for mlb are just auditors whose sole purpose is to ensure that the item is taken directly from the field or clubhouse into the hands of the team store. So there is no real authentication or research done. I alos suspect items may be also "authenticated" after the fact so what the player gives the team to be sold really relies on the integrity of the player.

Funny you used the word "auditors". MLB they first began the authentication program used the accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche to handle the authenticators then switched to law enforcement backgrounds with training.

On the part I highlighted in red, if they don't see the jersey coming off their back or the jersey isn't pre-marked, then it's not supposed to be authenticated as "game used" and will get a "game issued" authentication instead.

The research they do is more with items used during the game like the chain of events on a game used baseball or a broken bat.

Authenticators who have come to our autograph signings have been very knowledgeable.

Honest mistakes do get made and they usually correct them when they are notified. We had a base with an incorrect game date. It turned out the entire game log had the wrong date where instead of Sept 25th it was entered as Aug 25th. They corrected it.

Now they are using scanners and more sophisticated ways to upload the information quicker.

The fact that they rotate authenticators and use multiple authenticators for key games also helps in the integrity and that there is also a review process daily in MLB Headquarters adds to how good the system really is.

I don't believe there is a better authentication system in pro sports and this should be the model for the NFL.

[allstarsplus]

Is the collector mentioned in this article a member here?

http://nypost.com/2014/01/31/collect...rookie-helmet/

This excerpt is scary

A former Steiner Sports employee said Thursday that staffers of the memorabilia seller suspected that not all of the “game-used” gear was real.

“Specifically, from Eli we would see it and say, ‘Come on, this is not ‘game used,’ ” the source said.