From what I can tell these guys hired fairly big name, and therefore expensive, criminal defense lawyers out here.
Unless they have prior criminal records I would ultimately expect assorted plea agreements that might bring others down and would lead to penalties -- fines and perhaps agreements barring them re-entering the sports memorabilia business for a while or life -- but no real prison time.
What may be brought to light along the way could of course expose them to civil liability if the harmed individuals want to pursue it and that's way the plea agreements are a rather tricky test for the charged parties and their lawyers.
This will become yet another part of the saga of the card, Wagner T206, in general. The specific "altered" card will no longer universally acclaimed as the "best one" -- it will remain the most famous specimen.
T206 Wagners generally will continue to be the "most famous, most valuable, and rarest baseball card" (yes I know its not the rarest by a long shot and that a certain low end Wagner is not more valuable that the highest end of specimen of some other cards but that's the narrative to the outside world)
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