Posted By:
Scott Elkinsabout Mastro's shill bidding misappropriated state funds. This is true as far as I have read and researched. However, it DOES seem like Bill Mastro knew this at the time and even dealt with this individual DIRECTLY b/c of this fact! Thus, one would conclude that if Mastro did shill bid this person, it was probably b/c he thought he would not get caught (afterall, who was going to tell authorities at the time - the person using misappropriated funds?). I can vouch that I have won a few lots from Mastro over the past year below my max bid. However, I was not dealing directly with Bill Mastro and using funds Mastro seemed to know were being misapprpriated. I would also think there is probably some sort of a law somewhere that makes it illegal to accept funds known to be misappropriated state money. Afterall there are so many laws I don't really know about and I am not about to research it.
I agree that we are all suppose to be innocent until proven guilty. However, as everyone here knows, this country does not work that way or people would not be held incarcerated until a court date. We can all speculate here one way or another. My mind was made up last Winter about Mastro Inc.'s ethics when Doug Allen came on this very board and admitted to altering cards before having them graded - you can say they only do a tier or this or that. However, bottom line - it is altering to change the card before grading in order to receive a higher grade!
The thing I think that looks REALLY bad on Mastro on this one is the "secret" relationship and bidding process that was going on between Bill Mastro and this person misappropriating funds!