[Lorewalker]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

o further their alleged fraud scheme, Curcio ordered several items necessary to create forged card cases and labels to pass off the cards as graded, court documents allege.

They included plastic holders, thermal transfer barcode labels, a magnifier loupe optical glass, a handheld inkjet printer, a lock-cutting kit, an electric grinding pen, an abrasive buffer and polishing wheel, an abrasive and bristle brushes and drill bits designed for engraving, prosecutors said.

“Anthony Curcio and Iosif Bondarchuk carried out a brazen, nationwide fraud scheme involving valuable sports and Pokémon trading cards to deceive buyers and marketplaces, ultimately amassing over $2 million in fraudulent and attempted sales,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. “Curcio and Bondarchuk allegedly sold and tried to sell at inflated prices cards of various professional athletes, including, among others, Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Nolan Ryan, Larry Bird, Julius Erving, and Magic Johnson, as well as various valuable Pokémon cards.

Hmmmm.. I bet it's a lot more than $2 million if it went on for years.

The thing that stood out in the story to me, was this one sentence: PSA says its Brand Protection division worked with the FBI during the investigation. The focus there has never been about the end user but always about the impact on the brand and doing whatever possible to protect it. They keep details of crimes like this very quiet even after arrests have been made. People cheer someone is going to jail meanwhile, in this case, it is not clear if all of the fake holdered cards were confiscated.