Gernay, Oldridge, Horne Plead Guilty

[Eric]

Re: Gernay, Oldridge, Horne Plead Guilty

Mitchell Schumacher has now pleaded guilty as well. That's 4 of the 6, leaving Inselberg and Wells

http://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/fourth-dealer-pleads-guilty-to-mail-fraud-charges/

[Eric]

Re: Gernay, Oldridge, Horne Plead Guilty

NY Daily News

Mitchell Schumacher pleads guilty to mail fraud Wednesday in Illinois federal court

Charge stems from a four-year investigation
BY Michael O’keeffe
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Originally Published: Thursday, November 24 2011, 2:00 AM
Updated: Thursday, November 24 2011, 2:00 AM

Mitchell Schumacher acknowledges that he purchased jerseys from retail outlets and altered them to increase the price.

Another sports memorabilia dealer accused of creating fake “game-used” jerseys that were then sold to trading card companies and collectors pleaded guilty to mail fraud Wednesday in Illinois federal court.

Mitchell Schumacher of MS Sports pleaded guilty to mail fraud, acknowledging that he purchased jerseys from retail outlets and other sources, and then altered them to make the appear they had been used by pro athletes in games, substantially increasing their value.

The charge stems from a four-year investigation conducted by the Chicago FBI and other federal agencies. Executives from some of the most prominent companies in sports memorabilia – including Legendary Auctions, Grey Flannel, Professional Sports Authenticators and now-defunct Mastro Auctions – have been questioned at shows in recent years.

Schumacher’s plea agreement says he has agreed to cooperate, which suggests that he could be used as a witness against other memorabilia industry executives.

Court documents say Schumacher would alter the jerseys to make them appear game-used, then sell them to South Carolina dealer Bradley Horne, who sold them to card companies and other buyers.

Horne and memorabilia dealers Bernard Gernay of Howell, N.J., and Jarrod Oldridge of Las Vegas pleaded guilty to mail fraud on Monday.

The pleas raise questions about the true value and integrity of high-end cards that include threads or swaths of cloth cut out of athletes’ jerseys.

Schumacher was a target in Operation Foul Ball, an investigation into sports memorabilia conducted by the Chicago FBI more than 10 years ago. He pleaded guilty in 2000 and received three years probation and was fined $30,000.

Prosecutors say Schumacher could serve between 33 to 41 months in prison. He was one of six dealers charged last month with selling counterfeit game-used jerseys to trading card companies.

The defendants also include Eric Inselberg, a New Jersey dealer linked to a North Carolina warm-up jersey sold at a 2007 Mastro Auction for $11,000. Mastro executives claimed the jersey had once belonged to Michael Jordan.

As the Daily News first reported, authenticators and collectors said the jersey was an obvious fake in the weeks leading up to the auction, which was conducted at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Cleveland.



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/i-...#ixzz1egeyUsrA

[lakeerie92]

Re: Gernay, Oldridge, Horne Plead Guilty

Schumacher’s plea agreement says he has agreed to cooperate, which suggests that he could be used as a witness against other memorabilia industry executives.

Could this potentially mean that there are more people that they will go after?

[xpress34]

Re: Gernay, Oldridge, Horne Plead Guilty

Mitchell Schumacher has now pleaded guilty as well. That's 4 of the 6, leaving Inselberg and Wells

http://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com...fraud-charges/

As I mentioned earlier in this thread:

It also appears that even though Mitch Schumacher was trying to make a Plea (Criminal Information as well), the Feds have as yet to reach a Plea Deal with him - maybe because of his past:

In addition to Oldridge, Horne and Gernay, Wisconsin resident Mitchell Schumacher was also charged by information with mail fraud. No plea deal involving Schumacher was announced. He pled guilty to frauds and swindles as part of Operation Foul Ball in 2000 and received three years of probation and was fined $30,000.

It's possible the Feds are going to hit him harder because of his past involvement in the same crime.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

- Smitty

4th Dealer Pleads Guilty

From that article:

In 2000, Schumacher was caught in a similar scheme during the FBI's Operation Foul Ball. He could face a tougher sentence because of that.

Other notable statements in the article:

Prosecutors say the jersey scam was going on as late as the middle of this year.

They also indicate that Schumacher and others involved in the scheme provided phony certificates of authenticity to buyers

The above statement is more damning than the actual alterations because it makes it abundantly clear that they had ever intent to fully present these jerseys as GU.

I hope they all give up other fraudulent dealers and auction houses and that they ALL end up in jail!!!

Like the others who've pleaded guilty, however, Schumacher has agreed to offer information the government likely believes will be helpful in nabbing other dealers its ongoing investigation of the sports memorabilia industry.

Other articles including the FBI page state that there are MINIMUM sentencing standards that have to be met for these charges (plea or otherwise) and I believe it is somewhere around 33 to 41 MONTHS in Jail!

Only time will tell where this takes us!

- Smitty

[xpress34]

Re: Gernay, Oldridge, Horne Plead Guilty

Schumacher's Plea:

Schumacher's Plea

His is more intense than Jarrod's....

- Smitty

[SkubeBats]

Re: Gernay, Oldridge, Horne Plead Guilty

Some of you guys still are missing the point. These 6 guys just didn't sell their fake jerseys to just card companies they sold them to the PUBLIC!! So there is jersey's out there that are faked and come from these guys. So who knows what jerseys are good and which one's are fake. I won't be taking any chances. If I go to buy something and this items it tied to anyone of these guys I will have to pass because you never know. DO your homewrok........


It's also nice to find out that this scam was still going on during 2011.

[Trublubrucru]

Re: Gernay, Oldridge, Horne Plead Guilty

Anyone have a picture or mugshot of Mitchell Schumacher? He didn't learn his lesson on the first Federal conviction, he'll probably get involved again. I'd like to know what this dude looks like, because I'm sure he walks among us at shows, stadium sales and other events in Wisconsin.

[SaintsGeaux]

Re: Gernay, Oldridge, Horne Plead Guilty

Another benefit to the hobby will be these 4 dealers giving the FBI key information on other dirty dealers. Let's hope further arrests occur as we all know there is more dirty dealers and auction houses out there.

[camarokids]

Re: Gernay, Oldridge, Horne Plead Guilty

Look what happened to that Penn State coach when he spoke to Costas. At first I couldn't understand why his attorney allowed him to do the interview, but the attorney himself got a 18year old client of his pregnant when he was 49, so Sandusky and him must be members of the same club.

One difference, the attorney got the sex & age right on who to put his organ into.
Sandusky was doing under aged little boys!

[mickeymbz]

Re: Gernay, Oldridge, Horne Plead Guilty

Schumacher's Plea:

Schumacher's Plea

His is more intense than Jarrod's....

- Smitty

There is a will known factual story concerning Mitchell Schumacher that occured back in the 90's. In 1992 there existed no authentic or procut jerseys of NBA players available to the public. Mitchell Schumacher approached Champion and purchased numerous 92/93 blank shirts with extra body lengths. Names and numbers of star NBA players were stitched on and sold to the public. I remember talking with many people, collectors and dealers, who i met thru SCD who warned me of a list of star players to stay away from that year b/c of the endless amounts of forgeries that were flooded to the market. I think this is the first trouble that Mitchell Schumacher was involved in. This story is known in the collecting world and stands as warning for collectors to do their research. Mitchell Schumacher was already known to deal in bogus stuff yet many collectors still chose to deal with him. Not defending Mitchell Schumacher in any way, but collectors kept this mongrel alive by dealing with him despite his obvious blemished past.

[MarkakisMania]

Re: Gernay, Oldridge, Horne Plead Guilty

There is a will known factual story concerning Mitchell Schumacher that occured back in the 90's. In 1992 there existed no authentic or procut jerseys of NBA players available to the public. Mitchell Schumacher approached Champion and purchased numerous 92/93 blank shirts with extra body lengths. Names and numbers of star NBA players were stitched on and sold to the public. I remember talking with many people, collectors and dealers, who i met thru SCD who warned me of a list of star players to stay away from that year b/c of the endless amounts of forgeries that were flooded to the market. I think this is the first trouble that Mitchell Schumacher was involved in. This story is known in the collecting world and stands as warning for collectors to do their research. Mitchell Schumacher was already known to deal in bogus stuff yet many collectors still chose to deal with him. Not defending Mitchell Schumacher in any way, but collectors kept this mongrel alive by dealing with him despite his obvious blemished past.

Isn't this the whole point though??? It is in fact the exact point I and other posters have been trying to make. Schmacher had another chance because people kept buying from this guy after he was caught once before. The same thing applies to Bernie Gernay as he was caught selling bad stuff in the past and buyers kept buying and now he is caught again. This is the point we have been trying to make to the Bears man and some of the other people who keep saying I don't care as long as I get mine basically screw everyone else. If other collectors get ripped off that is not my problem. Well, in fact it is your problem because we have now seen multiple cases where guys are caught once, buyers keep going back to them keeping them in business and look at that caught again years later doing the same or similar shady business deals. It is this mentality that continues to keep these guys in business. YOU the buyer keep the crooks in business end of story.

I posted this on a previous thread why is anybody suprised by this behavior at all. I have to admit you have to have some serious ba%$s to keep doctoring stuff once you have been caught once by the Feds and you keep on doing it. How stupid is that. But again, anything from sheer greed, trying to put food on the table, stupidity, lack of any morals etc. lead to people doing the unimaginable in the name of a quick buck.

I heard someone say about photo matching items. This is such a narrow focused possibility that it would exclude a great many people from actually collecting. My focus has increasingly become vintage Orioles, Redskins, Senators etc. stuff from the 70's and back into the 40's and 50's, 60's etc. The possibility of photo matching any of this stuff is somewhere between slim and none. Unless you focus on current stuff from the major sports from say the past 3 - 5 years you are pretty much out of luck with photo matching. I remember when I was focusing on more recent stuff a couple of years back from say the late 90's it was almost impossible to photo match this stuff due to lack of high res, and just general lack of overall photos nevermind stuff from 30 plus years ago, forget about that.

If you can photo match your stuff, great for you, but for many collectors this is next to impossible especially if your focus if vintage anything forget about it. For those of you who only focus on modern NFL, NHL etc. great but for the rest of us, that is just not a realistic possibility.

I think it also gets away from the point that you continue to support a known felon. Each person has to make a decision what they are or are not comfortable doing but I can honestly say my personal decision in regard to doing business with an unethical company or person is that I simply will not do business with them. I have not nor will I ever do business with AMI, Vintage Authentics, Coaches Corner, Brad Wells etc. just to name a few. I made that decision a number of years ago and despite the fact that I have seen several good products that I would have liked to have had go through their auction houses and businesses in the past, I refuse in anyway to support these establishments or companies. I would rather put the hobby first and do what little I can to put bad people out of business than add something to my collection. My choice, each person needs to decide for themselves. Several of those companies have never even had any federal charges or otherwise filed against them that I mentioned above, however we all know the rumors in the industry about their shady dealings etc. and I simply refuse to support any of them and never ever have. It did not surprise me in the least that Steve Jensen was arrested at the Natiional. Vintage Authentics has been pushing questionable items through their auction house for years they just finally got caught. How some of these other house have not been caught to this point is beyond me. Perhaps this will all lead to more arrest as others have mentioned and we can only hope,

Jeb