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Posted By: Dan Mathewson

Maybe I've been outta police work too long. Someone show me the light.

I'm doing my best to follow the scenario of what has been going on...so, correct me if I transgress...

PSA discovers someone (I'm assuming, perhaps, that WIWAG is a PSA Dealer that slabs a LOT of their cards in PSA holders) is committing some sort of fraud. Apparently, this dealer seems to be slabbing high grade cards by PSA, then cracking them upon return, putting a lower grade of the same card back in, then selling them for huge profits. OK, I see the fraud.

(How did PSA find out? I'm assuming what has happened here is that a buyer buys a graded card from this particular dealer, sees it is more like a grade-3 card in a grade-7 holder, then goes back to PSA to demand a refund. But, as this continues over time, PSA realizes these continued complaints have one common denominator -- they were bought from the same dealer).

They call the police who then involve the FBI because, among other things, this involves retail items which go through the mail and also involves interstate commerce. OK, so that part makes sense to me, too.

The FBI gets involved. They start to track the dealer by scanning/photographing and probably tagging graded cards that go back to that dealer. Once sold, the buyers are contacted over time to see if a swap occurred sometime after the cards were sent back to the dealer from PSA.

(I'm just following investigative logic here, ok? I don't know the facts of the case, I'm making some broad strokes, but these steps make investigative sense).

The FBI develops enough probable cause at this point through evidenciary proof to determine that the dealer is committing this fraud. They arraign charges at this point.

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So, that is one possible scenario that I understand. It seems logical and makes sense to me.

Am I missing something? Are there people on this board that think PSA has the FBI's Banking & Fraud unit in it's pocket? I do understand that people here have their loyalty to certain grading companies, and I have said before that there's nothing wrong with brand loyalty when a company provides you with what you want, regardless of what others think... But, making an assertion that the FBI is bought off by PSA because the FBI wants to make PSA look better than other card grading companies is, well, kinda weird, don't ya think?

Or, have I missed something else?

Historically, the FBI and other larger gov't investigative agencies have very, very strict criteria that must be met before they commit any of their manpower allocation to any investigation. They do not tread into the criminal arena lightly if there's any aspect of a case that can allow them to reverse jurisdiction back to the local authorities (city or county detective units). Frankly, I'm surprised the Feds still held on to this as I couldn't see the dollar values getting very far into even the six-digit range... But, that they did makes me think there is substantial legitimacy to the case.

I'd like to see other comments here because I really think I've missed some other info along the way...