Eric
09-03-2014, 09:00 AM
From Daily News iBlog
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/iteam/mastro-auctions-employee-pleads-guilty-lying-fbi-agents-blog-entry-1.1925387?cid=bitly
Former Mastro Auctions employee pleads guilty to lying to FBI agents
BY MICHAEL O'KEEFFE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, September 2, 2014, 6:31 PM
Prosecutors have asked a judge to sentence a former Mastro Auctions employee who pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents to up to six months in prison.
William Boehm, the now-defunct sports memorabilia company’s director of information technology, pleaded guilty to making false statements on Tuesday in Chicago federal court.
Boehm, according to court documents, told FBI agents in 2007 that he had disabled two accounts because the clients were having financial problems, even though he knew that Mastro Auctions founder Bill Mastro and other employees had used the accounts for shill bidding.
“During a telephone call which occurred after defendant Boehm wasinterviewed by the FBI, defendant Boehm told Mastro not to worry about th FBI’s investigation because he ‘took care of it,’ meaning that defendant Boehm made false and fraudulent statements to the FBI agents in an effort to intentionally mislead them or otherwise undermine their investigation of fraudulent auction practices, a matter within the jurisdiction of the FBI,” prosecutors said in a plea agreement made public on Tuesday.
Boehm is the fourth auction house executive to plead guilty as the result of the federal investigation launched in 2006. Mastro Auctions, once the hobby's biggest and most influential sports memorabilia house, went out of business in 2009 in the midst of the FBI investigation. Bill Mastro, the company's founder and the brother of former New York City deputy mayor Randy Mastro, pleaded guilty in October and is expected to serve up to five years in prison.
Company president Doug Allen pleaded guilty last month to one count of wire fraud. Prosecutors from the Northern District of Illinois recommended that Allen serve more than 12 years in prison because he allegedly told a longtime business associate, John Rogers, that he had agreed to cooperate with the government and would be wearing a wire at their next meeting for the FBI agents investigating fraud in the industry.
Another former Mastro executive, Mark Theotikos, pleaded guilty on Aug. 5. Allen and Theotikos formed Legendary Auctions in 2009, after Mastro Auctions was shut down.
Mastro, Allen and Theotikos are accused of rigging auctions to fraudulently drive up prices on vintage baseball cards and other sports collectibles.
The indictment said Allen and Mastro sold a 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings trophy ball for $62,000 even though lab tests showed paint on the ball had not been manufactured until after World War II. Allen is also accused of selling hair from Elvis Presley even though he knew DNA tests had raised questions about its authenticity.
Mastro, meanwhile, acknowledged in court last year that he had altered the world's most expensive baseball card, the T206 Honus Wagner once owned by NHL great Wayne Gretzky. As two Daily News reporters wrote in their book "The Card," the alteration increased the card's value significantly and helped spark the sports memorabilia boom of the 1990s even though trimming is an egregious violation of hobby practices. The Wagner currently belongs to Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick, who paid a record $2.8 million for it in 2007.
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/iteam/mastro-auctions-employee-pleads-guilty-lying-fbi-agents-blog-entry-1.1925387?cid=bitly
Former Mastro Auctions employee pleads guilty to lying to FBI agents
BY MICHAEL O'KEEFFE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, September 2, 2014, 6:31 PM
Prosecutors have asked a judge to sentence a former Mastro Auctions employee who pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents to up to six months in prison.
William Boehm, the now-defunct sports memorabilia company’s director of information technology, pleaded guilty to making false statements on Tuesday in Chicago federal court.
Boehm, according to court documents, told FBI agents in 2007 that he had disabled two accounts because the clients were having financial problems, even though he knew that Mastro Auctions founder Bill Mastro and other employees had used the accounts for shill bidding.
“During a telephone call which occurred after defendant Boehm wasinterviewed by the FBI, defendant Boehm told Mastro not to worry about th FBI’s investigation because he ‘took care of it,’ meaning that defendant Boehm made false and fraudulent statements to the FBI agents in an effort to intentionally mislead them or otherwise undermine their investigation of fraudulent auction practices, a matter within the jurisdiction of the FBI,” prosecutors said in a plea agreement made public on Tuesday.
Boehm is the fourth auction house executive to plead guilty as the result of the federal investigation launched in 2006. Mastro Auctions, once the hobby's biggest and most influential sports memorabilia house, went out of business in 2009 in the midst of the FBI investigation. Bill Mastro, the company's founder and the brother of former New York City deputy mayor Randy Mastro, pleaded guilty in October and is expected to serve up to five years in prison.
Company president Doug Allen pleaded guilty last month to one count of wire fraud. Prosecutors from the Northern District of Illinois recommended that Allen serve more than 12 years in prison because he allegedly told a longtime business associate, John Rogers, that he had agreed to cooperate with the government and would be wearing a wire at their next meeting for the FBI agents investigating fraud in the industry.
Another former Mastro executive, Mark Theotikos, pleaded guilty on Aug. 5. Allen and Theotikos formed Legendary Auctions in 2009, after Mastro Auctions was shut down.
Mastro, Allen and Theotikos are accused of rigging auctions to fraudulently drive up prices on vintage baseball cards and other sports collectibles.
The indictment said Allen and Mastro sold a 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings trophy ball for $62,000 even though lab tests showed paint on the ball had not been manufactured until after World War II. Allen is also accused of selling hair from Elvis Presley even though he knew DNA tests had raised questions about its authenticity.
Mastro, meanwhile, acknowledged in court last year that he had altered the world's most expensive baseball card, the T206 Honus Wagner once owned by NHL great Wayne Gretzky. As two Daily News reporters wrote in their book "The Card," the alteration increased the card's value significantly and helped spark the sports memorabilia boom of the 1990s even though trimming is an egregious violation of hobby practices. The Wagner currently belongs to Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick, who paid a record $2.8 million for it in 2007.