Subpoenas???

[Eric]

According to people at the national, the feds talked to all the major auction houses, authentication companies and many others...

[Eric]

Feds swarm to question card sharks

BY MICHAEL O'KEEFFE
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

Saturday, August 2nd 2008, 10:15 PM

The same day Mastro Auctions sold a rare 1909 Honus Wagner card for $1.62 million at a sale held in conjunction with the National Sports Collectors Convention in Rosemont, Ill., federal agents investigating fraud in sports collectibles questioned employees of Professional Sports Authenticator, the hobby's top card grading service.

Also on Friday, investigators from the FBI and the United States Postal Service interviewed a former Mastro Auctions employee who is known to be a "card doctor," somebody who fixes dog-eared corners, removes stains, flattens out creases or takes other steps to improve the appearance of trading cards. Most collectors and dealers consider it unethical to alter cards.

"They spent a lot of time at the PSA booth," one sports memorabilia executive said.

Federal agents spent several hours Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the National, sports memorabilia's largest annual convention, issuing subpoenas to appear before a grand jury investigating fraud in the memorabilia business.

The agents' appearance at the show is part of an investigation into sports memorabilia fraud initiated last year by the Chicago division of the FBI, whose "Operation Foul Ball" smashed a multistate autograph forgery ring during the 1990s. The target of the investigation appears to be Illinois-based Mastro Auctions, sports memorabilia's largest auction house, although other businesses and individuals may also be involved.

The source said Bill Mastro, the company's chairman, looked cool and collected during the auction, held this year at the Chicago ESPNZone. "But (Mastro president Doug Allen) looked awful," the executive added. "I think all this is getting to him."

Allen and Mastro could not be reached for comment Saturday. Neither could Joe Orlando, president of PSA.

The fact that PSA officials and the former Mastro employee were interviewed by agents indicates that investigators are also interested in learning about "card doctoring."

Cards that have been trimmed, colored or repaired are tainted and worth considerably less than cards that have not been altered. The difference in the value of cards that have been altered and the same card that has not been doctored can be hundreds of thousands of dollars.

PSA was formed in 1991 to protect collectors from card doctors, counterfeiters and other cheats. But the company has been a lightning rod for controversy. Collectors and dealers say PSA inflates grades for cards submitted by big-volume customers such as Mastro Auctions.

The first card the company graded - another 1909 Wagner, at the time owned by NHL great Wayne Gretzky - had been cut from a sheet and later doctored, according to "The Card," a book by two Daily News reporters. The Wagner, which PSA graded an 8 (on a scale of 1-10) sold for a record $2.8 million last year, even though a former PSA authenticator has said the company knew the card had been doctored.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/ba...rd_sharks.html

[Vintagedeputy]

Feds swarm to question card sharks

BY MICHAEL O'KEEFFE
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

Saturday, August 2nd 2008, 10:15 PM

The same day Mastro Auctions sold a rare 1909 Honus Wagner card for $1.62 million at a sale held in conjunction with the National Sports Collectors Convention in Rosemont, Ill., federal agents investigating fraud in sports collectibles questioned employees of Professional Sports Authenticator, the hobby's top card grading service.

Also on Friday, investigators from the FBI and the United States Postal Service interviewed a former Mastro Auctions employee who is known to be a "card doctor," somebody who fixes dog-eared corners, removes stains, flattens out creases or takes other steps to improve the appearance of trading cards. Most collectors and dealers consider it unethical to alter cards.

"They spent a lot of time at the PSA booth," one sports memorabilia executive said.

Federal agents spent several hours Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the National, sports memorabilia's largest annual convention, issuing subpoenas to appear before a grand jury investigating fraud in the memorabilia business.

The agents' appearance at the show is part of an investigation into sports memorabilia fraud initiated last year by the Chicago division of the FBI, whose "Operation Foul Ball" smashed a multistate autograph forgery ring during the 1990s. The target of the investigation appears to be Illinois-based Mastro Auctions, sports memorabilia's largest auction house, although other businesses and individuals may also be involved.

The source said Bill Mastro, the company's chairman, looked cool and collected during the auction, held this year at the Chicago ESPNZone. "But (Mastro president Doug Allen) looked awful," the executive added. "I think all this is getting to him."

Allen and Mastro could not be reached for comment Saturday. Neither could Joe Orlando, president of PSA.

The fact that PSA officials and the former Mastro employee were interviewed by agents indicates that investigators are also interested in learning about "card doctoring."

Cards that have been trimmed, colored or repaired are tainted and worth considerably less than cards that have not been altered. The difference in the value of cards that have been altered and the same card that has not been doctored can be hundreds of thousands of dollars.

PSA was formed in 1991 to protect collectors from card doctors, counterfeiters and other cheats. But the company has been a lightning rod for controversy. Collectors and dealers say PSA inflates grades for cards submitted by big-volume customers such as Mastro Auctions.

The first card the company graded - another 1909 Wagner, at the time owned by NHL great Wayne Gretzky - had been cut from a sheet and later doctored, according to "The Card," a book by two Daily News reporters. The Wagner, which PSA graded an 8 (on a scale of 1-10) sold for a record $2.8 million last year, even though a former PSA authenticator has said the company knew the card had been doctored.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/ba...rd_sharks.html

PSA has always walked on the dark side. I wouldnt use them if they were the only grading co. around.

[Eric]

Fox news in Chicago filed a report from the national convention...

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/myfox/pa...Y&pageId=1.1.1

[whatupyos]

For anyone selling fake game used items or doctoring them they should be sent to prison for the rest of their life in my opinion.

[trsent]

For anyone selling fake game used items or doctoring them they should be sent to prison for the rest of their life in my opinion.

Haha, that is funny.

What should they do to people who rob banks? Kill them?

[34swtns]

For anyone selling fake game used items or doctoring them they should be sent to prison for the rest of their life in my opinion.

And they should kill the families of murderers, too.

Dude, please......

[whatupyos]

Hey, look, thats my opinion...I'm sorry you to libs have a more easy going manner, but I dont stand for anyone knowingly commiting crimes.

[both-teams-played-hard]

Hey, look, thats my opinion...I'm sorry you to libs have a more easy going manner, but I dont stand for anyone knowingly commiting crimes.

I thought a person who used the screen name "whatupyos" would be a young man with baggy khakis and a ballcap with a flat bill. However you use the term "libs" like it means "jackball", "assmunch" or "numbnuts". Liberal is not an insult. Life in prison for altering a jersey? Yes, you are young...but getting old before your time.

[Eric]

From Chicago Tribune

Sports memorabilia auction house under probe

Mastro Auctions in Burr Ridge hit with subpoenas at Rosemont convention

By Jeff Coen | Chicago Tribune reporter 11:35 AM CDT, August 4, 2008

Federal investigators have subpoenaed leaders of a local sports memorabilia auction house in an ongoing fraud investigation into possible "shill bidding" to drive prices up, sources confirmed Monday.

Executives of Mastro Auctions in Burr Ridge received subpoenas late last week at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Rosemont, investigators said.

Mastro made news over the weekend with its auction of a 1909 Honus Wagner baseball card for $1.62 million.

The subpoenas were delivered beginning Thursday at the Rosemont show, the country's largest in the sports memorabilia hobby field, the sources said. Authorities declined to comment on the scope of the investigation.

Shill bidding involves the bogus rigging of bids during auctions to jack up prices.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago declined to comment.

A call to the executive offices of Mastro was not immediately returned.

jcoen@tribune.com
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-sports-auction-probe-aug05,0,2114795.story