BREAKING: Wells, FBI, Card Companies & Fakes

[Eric]

Fraud sports memorabilia dealer Bradley Wells tells FBI prominent card companies knew his jerseys were fakes
Bradley Wells tells federal investigators Upper Deck and Topps knew they were purchasing phonies to insert in special edition cards - and they didn't care.

BY MICHAEL O’KEEFFE / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2012, 10:52 PM

ROB CARR/AP

The National Sports Collectors Convention is where fraud collector Bradley Wells met with Upper Deck, he says.
A sports memorabilia dealer who pleaded guilty to mail fraud last week told the FBI he sold bogus game-used jerseys to the most prominent trading card manufacturers in the business — and the card companies, which cut up the garments and insert swathes of cloth into premium cards, were in on the scam, fully aware that they were passing along fake collectibles to consumers.

Bradley Wells told agents that buyers from Panini America, Upper Deck and Topps knew they were purchasing phony game-used jerseys to insert in the premium cards, which means thousands of collectors who thought they were buying collectibles that linked them directly to their favorite athletes may have been deceived.

"Wells was asked if the card companies knew that what he was selling to them was not game used," said a summary of a 2009 FBI interview that was included in a motion submitted to a federal court in Rockford, Ill., by Wells' attorney, Rocco Cipparone, in June. “Wells said that the card companies were too smart to put their beliefs in writing, but they knew a lot of what they were buying from resellers like Wells was not game used.

“Wells recalled a conversation he had with (an Upper Deck buyer) at the Anaheim (Calif.) National Sports Collectors Convention approximately three years ago. During the conversation, (the buyer) told Wells that Upper Deck needed eight Derek Jeter jerseys and was willing to pay between $1,000 and $1,200 each," the document continued.

"Wells told (the buyer) that he was paying between $3,500 and from Steiner Sports and Steiner Sports obtained their Jeter jerseys directly from the New York Yankees. Wells told (the buyer) that by paying only $1,200 for Jeter jerseys, Upper Deck was inviting fraud. (The buyer) said that Upper Deck knew what they were getting, but the needed the Jeter jerseys at the minimum price.”

Cipparone told the Daily News he is not aware of any federal investigations into the trading-card companies.

“Game-used cards,” first introduced in the mid-1990s, are popular with collectors because they give sports fans an opportunity to own a piece of a jersey or bat used by their favorite athletes, said Brian Gray, the owner of Leaf Trading Cards.

“Game-used jerseys have been a coveted collectible for years but not every collector has the means to pay $7,000 or $8,000 for an Ichiro (Suzuki) jersey," Gray said. "Game-used cards give collectors a way to own a piece of something from a player's career.”

Spokesmen from Upper Deck and Panini America — formerly known as Donruss — did not return calls for comment regarding the claims Wells made to the FBI. A spokesman for Topps also declined to discuss the allegations Wells made.

Gray said the document suggests his rivals had “bad judgment, not bad intentions,” but he said Panini, Upper Deck and Topps need to address the allegations.

"How come they haven't communicated this to their customers?" he asked. “Shame on these companies for not being more concerned about what they put in their products.”

FBI Special Agent Brian Brusokas and United States Postal Inspector Matthew Carlson interviewed Wells at the National Sports Collectors Convention, which was held that year in Cleveland, the summary said. The feds also gave Wells subpoenas for records for his company, Historic Auctions, and Authentic Sports Inc., a now-defunct company he owned with a dealer named Scot Monette.

Wells acknowledged he was involved in “dirtying up” jerseys and gloves to make them look game used, but said that it was Monette's idea to play “home run derby” with baseball bats in order to make them look like they had been used by major league players.

Monette denied he was involved in attempts to pass off bats as game used.

“I’ve never participated in any action like that,” he said. “If I had done anything wrong the FBI would have contacted me. I haven’t done anything inappropriate, plain and simple.”

Wells also told the feds that dealers would give kickbacks to card company buyers to thank them for purchasing memorabilia from them.

Wells, who pleaded guilty to mail fraud in Rockford, Ill., federal court on Sept. 6, was one of six memorabilia dealers indicted on fraud charges in October 2011. Four other dealers have already pleaded guilty, according to the United States Attorney's office for Northern Illinois; the sixth defendant, Eric Inselberg, is awaiting trial.

The charges stem from a five-year investigation into fraud in the sports memorabilia industry that has been conducted by the Chicago FBI and other federal agencies. In July, a grand jury indicted one-time memorabilia king Bill Mastro, the founder of Mastro Auctions, and his longtime associate Doug Allen on fraud charges. Both men have pleaded not guilty.

The indictment alleges that Mastro and Allen — once the most influential figures in the multi-billion sports memorabilia industry — routinely defrauded customers and rigged auctions. The indictment also claims that Mastro altered the world's most expensive baseball card, the T206 Honus Wagner card once owned by NHL great Wayne Gretzky.

In their 2007 book "The Card," Daily News reporters Michael O’Keeffe and Teri Thompson reported that the Wagner card now known as the Gretzky T206 Wagner had been cut from a printer’s sheet and was further trimmed by Mastro to make it appear as if it had come from a pack of cigarettes in 1909.

Wells is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 14. The maximum sentence for fraud is 20 years in a federal prison.

"Wells again stated he believed all the card companies knew they were buying questionable game used jerseys," Wells said, according to the interview summary, "because they were not willing to pay market price for game-used jerseys."



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/i-...#ixzz26PY76I5x

[schubert1970]

Don't think anyone on this forum would be surprised by this.

[frikativ54]

Sad to see ethics go out the window.

[joelsabi]

wow. if this is true, wonder how long before the market for game used cards market crashes. you think any game used cards or sets will be immune for suspicion?

[trsent]

wow. if this is true, wonder how long before the market for game used cards market crashes. you think any game used cards or sets will be immune for suspicion?

I think the card people don't care about any of this. I watch guys open boxes of cards and they never seem to care. They only care what they pull. Us game used people are insulted by the whole process, but card collectors like the concept and are not an anal about what's real and what's not.

Now, if autographs are found not to be genuine that is always a concern of card collectors - Go figure.

[otismalibu]

Don't think anyone on this forum would be surprised by this.

Agreed.

I think the card people don't care about any of this. I watch guys open boxes of cards and they never seem to care. They only care what they pull. Us game used people are insulted by the whole process, but card collectors like the concept and are not an anal about what's real and what's not.

Agreed.

It doesn't really matter to card collectors if the autograph is a scribble and the swatch is from a bogus jersey. What matters is that the scribble is a 1/1 and the swatch features part of a letter/number.

[frikativ54]

I think the card people don't care about any of this. I watch guys open boxes of cards and they never seem to care. They only care what they pull. Us game used people are insulted by the whole process, but card collectors like the concept and are not an anal about what's real and what's not.

Now, if autographs are found not to be genuine that is always a concern of card collectors - Go figure.

Good points. I also think that aesthetics play a role in swatches being so appealing to card collectors. For example, I have two patch cards that I will never part with, regardless of the authenticity of the jersey pieces inside. I just love how they look, and that's all that matters to me.

[Jags Fan Dan]

I thought the market for game used cards had already crashed. Stuff that was selling for $20-30 when I was collecting cards sells for about 10% of that now.

[Birdbats]

Let me see if I understand this. Brad Wells says card companies must have known they were buying fakes because they were not willing to pay market prices. Fine. So, if you're a card company bent on saving cash and willing to use fake items, why would you give Brad Wells (or anyone) $1,200 for a fake Jeter jersey when you could buy Joe Blow's issued Yankees jersey and pants for next to nothing and call it Jeter's uniform? That "logic" just doesn't hold water.

I've watched just enough crime shows in my life to suspect someone might be offering up a "bigger fish" in an effort to reduce his own sentence. But, if I'm investigating this case, I'd have to know why any card company would pay $1,200 for a known fake when they can get questionable items far cheaper elsewhere. It's not like the people buying the cards know the companies' source of jerseys, or were demanding swatches came from jerseys purchased from ASI.

So, color me skeptical.

[Jags Fan Dan]

Let me see if I understand this. Brad Wells says card companies must have known they were buying fakes because they were not willing to pay market prices. Fine. So, if you're a card company bent on saving cash and willing to use fake items, why would you give Brad Wells (or anyone) $1,200 for a fake Jeter jersey when you could buy Joe Blow's issued Yankees jersey and pants for next to nothing and call it Jeter's uniform? That "logic" just doesn't hold water.

I've watched just enough crime shows in my life to suspect someone might be offering up a "bigger fish" in an effort to reduce his own sentence. But, if I'm investigating this case, I'd have to know why any card company would pay $1,200 for a known fake when they can get questionable items far cheaper elsewhere. It's not like the people buying the cards know the companies' source of jerseys, or were demanding swatches came from jerseys purchased from ASI.

So, color me skeptical.

Those are good points. Forget "questionable items", if you were knowingly going to use non-game worn stuff, why not just put cut-up authentic retail jerseys in there? It's tough to discern use/wear on a 1"x1" swatch of material.