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Re: Bill Mastro, Doug Allen Indicted
I just received an email from Legendary Auctions promoting their holding of the National Convention auction next weekend. It may just be me, but I question the National's PR acumen in having a just-indicted business running their signature auction.
Dave MiedemaComment
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Re: Bill Mastro, Doug Allen Indicted
JULY 31, 2012
After indictment on fraud charges, sports memorabilia king Bill Mastro pleads not guilty
BY MICHAEL O'KEEFFE
Bill Mastro, the one-time king of sports memorabilia who was indicted by grand jury on a count of fraud last week, entered a plea of not guilty in Chicago federal court on Tuesday. Mark Theotikos, the former Mastro Auctions executive who faces six counts of fraud, has also entered a plea of not guilty.
Doug Allen, Mastro Auction’s longtime president who along with Theotikos went on to found Legendary Auctions, entered a plea of not guilty last week.
Mastro’s attorney, Michael Monico, said last week that he expects the case will be resolved without a trial, suggesting that his client is cooperating with the feds and will change his plea at some point in the future.
Mastro dropped out of the hobby in 2009, after he shut down Mastro Auctions, which once generated as much as $50 million a year in sales. He sold his legendary memorabilia collection in 2010.
Allen, a source tells us, is in Baltimore for the National Sports Collectors Convention, which begins on Wednesday and runs through the weekend. Allen, we hear, isn’t hiding. He’s greeting friends and associates at the hobby’s annual bash, and telling anyone who will listen that he will vigorously fight the charges. That’s consistent with what his lawyer, Michael Petro, already told the Daily News. The Chicago Sun-Times quoted Petro as saying Bill was “the Mastromind” of the company.
The indictment says Mastro altered the world's most expensive baseball trading card, the Honus Wagner T206 that has fetched millions in a series of high-profile sales since Mastro bought it for $25,000 in a Hicksville, L.I. memorabilia shop in 1985. Its owners have included NHL great Wayne Gretzky, who purchased the card in 1991 along with Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall for $451,000.
"Defendant Mastro represented that Mastro Auctions had sold the most expensive baseball card in the world, a Honus Wagner T206 card," the indictment says. "In making this representation, however, defendant Mastro knowingly omitted the material fact that defendant Mastro had altered the baseball card by cutting the sides of the card in a manner that, if disclosed, would have significantly reduced the value of the card."
The T206 Wagner is the subject of the book I wrote with Teri Thompson, “The Card.” Here’s what one of the wise guys on Net 54, the vintage card forum, said about the book: “Get your hands on a copy of ‘The Card.’ It will give you enlightenment to the background in this case. I just got it from a friend and after reading it, it changed how I look at this hobby.”
Thanks for the endorsement!
According to the indictment, Mastro Auctions also sold what it claimed was Elvis Presley's hair years after Allen learned that DNA testing proved the locks did not come from the King of Rock. Additionally, the company sold a 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings trophy baseball, even though Mastro knew there were questions about its authenticity.
Another Net 54 posted an item about what promises to be the must-have collectible at this year’s show: “Just a rumor, but I've heard that they are putting the finishing touches on mug shot promo cards for distribution at the National. The cards will feature a "Criminal Code of Conduct" on the verso of the booking photo.”
Now that’s a Holy Grail!
I’ve been invited to speak on Friday at the NSSC dinner organized by Net 54 moderator Leon Luckey. Thanks to the Justice Department, there won’t be a shortage of topics to discuss.
Always looking for game used San Diego Chargers items...Comment
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