US v. Cord Monroe, the T206 forger
 

There's something about this case that's been bothering me for a long time. Does anyone know where I can find a copy of the Government's case and Judge's Decision?

Why didnt they get Monroe on anything other than 18 T206?

It is Criminal Docket No: 4:22-cr-00246-SL-1 in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Ohio (Youngstown)

September 8, 2023
Minutes of proceedings [non-document] before Judge Sara Lioi. On 9/8/2023, the Court held a waiver of indictment and plea hearing as to Cord Monroe (1). Present were the following: Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Daly (Assistant U.S. Attorney Alejandro Abreu participated by telephone), Attorney David Betras, and the defendant. Defendant waived indictment and entered a plea of guilty to count 1 of the information with a plea agreement. Defendant referred to Pretrial/Probation for preparation of a Presentence Investigation Report. Sentencing set for 1/5/2024 at 11:00 a.m. in Courtroom 530 before Judge Sara Lioi. Defendant released on bond with the same terms and conditions that were previously set. (Court Reporter Caroline Mahnke) Time: 1 hour. (V,A) (Entered: 09/08/2023)


The sentencing document is too large to insert here. Here are some of the important parts:

THE DEFENDANT:
☒ pleaded guilty to count(s) 1 of the information

The defendant must pay the total criminal monetary penalties under the schedule of payments page.
Assessment Restitution
TOTALS $100.00 $73,358.35


The court determined that the defendant does not have the ability to pay interest and it is ordered that:
☒ the interest requirement is waived for the ☐ fine ☒ restitution


The defendant shall forfeit the defendant’s interest in the following property to the United States:
All forged baseball cards referenced in the Factual Basis and Relevant Conduct section of the plea agreement in this case and
any other baseball memorabilia seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation during this investigation

This is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Where's the part where they order him to open 100,000 packs of 1988 Topps?

I'm pretty sure that violates the 8th Amendment, cruel and unusual punishment ;)

It would only be cruel and unusual if they made him eat the gum.

Graded ?
 

..Where are the cards now ?Were any put into holders ?

Do you have any sense of the size of the scheme versus the 73K he apparently paid in restitution?

Based on the numbers listed in the SCD article, ir doesn't seem to be that much more than what he had to pay. There are 3 cards listed with no indication as to how much they sold for, and the rest add up to around $74K. Is it normal for restitution to be less than the actual amount someone fraudulently obtained?

I lived through this, and was owner of several. It was all well documented here on Net54 — in fact, Net54 had a significant role in outing the offender and those of us with bad cards getting reimbursed.

Here’s that fun link….

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=262673

He wasn't necessarily formally charged with each instance of the alleged forgery.

You may have spoken to this already, and I haven't gone back to the thread, but did all of this change your approach to collecting?

Oh definitely. I wrote an article about that on my website, if you’re interested:

http://www.signedt206.com/chasing-th...ned-t206-cards



.

Well, 6 years have gone by. At the risk of making light of this situation, I'll repost my contribution to that thread, even though most of you have probably seen this already.

Apologies ahead of time to anybody who might have been victimized by this crook.

https://www.captiongenerator.com/v/1...raphed-mystery

From personal experience from people I know getting arrested, yes and it is usually a very small percentage of what they really stole. Insurance companies are horrible for this and when getting busted they basically get away with it. My cousin has been busted multiple times for taking insurance payments and not really providing any insurance. She paid back pennies on the dollar and never had to stop "selling" insurance any of the times. Embezzling from companies is the same. A girl I dated and a friends mom(different companies) both stole over 100K and they both got probation and had to pay back less than 10% of what they actually stole.

So apparently sometimes crime does pay.

It depends on the crime. Rob a store for their $200 in the cash drawer and you will go to prison. Steal 100K from the company you work for and get a slap on the wrist. In our hobby just look at the Mastro debacle. I don't have a single friend including myself that wouldn't spend the few months in a country club prison for the insane amount of cash he robbed from our hobby.

Yep, and if it's smaller sometimes there's even less consequence.

Car dealership I worked for hired a new finance manager.

Co worker - Oh this guy again?
Me - he was here before?
Co worker - Yeah, he got caught stealing 15k a couple years ago
Me - What? Why is he back
Co worker - The owner is stupid.

One month later he was fired, Stole another 15K. Law enforcement was never involved.

The level of passion and dedication is amazing. Fascinating read, thanks.

Nice article and site, Paul.