Bill Mastro -- What He Really Thinks of His Hobby Friends

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by WhenItWasAHobby

One lingering thought. There were actually a lot of people who profited from Mastro's fraud - in particular the people whose consignments to Mastro were shilled by Mastro. I wonder how many of these "profiteers" were the people who gave Mastro glowing endorsements to have his sentenced reduced?

Most collectors didn't want to be outed as being supporters of Mastro for a number of reasons: a) he's a thief and most in the hobby do not want to be associated with a thief in the hobby; or b) writing such a positive letter might cause others to believe they conspired with Mastro to shill their own consignments. (Similarly, many Mastro co-conspirators have been careful to never mention a negative word about Mastro et al. on any of these threads for fear of being outed; others had any number of laughable reasons why they wouldn't write a negative letter to the Court about Mastro)

At least one Mastro "supporter" wrote a letter to the court and tried to keep it sealed so that presumably no one would see what he had written (which included a ludicrous explanation that Mastro's fraud did not impact future sales prices of cards he shilled, as well as denigrating me for daring to publicly hound Mastro and Allen for their crimes). When told that his letter would not be permitted to remain sealed he withdrew it instead. Luckily I got to see the letter before it was withdrawn.