NEW YORK -- An 82-year-old Colorado man was charged Wednesday with selling and trading fake Michael Jordan basketball cards in a scheme that prosecutors said resulted in him making more than US$800,000 over four years.
Mayo Gilbert McNeil was arrested in Denver, where he lives, after a complaint was unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office.
McNeil was accused of making numerous fraudulent deals beginning in 2015, including the 2019 sale of a counterfeit card to a victim in Manhasset, New York, for $4,500, and a 2017 deal in which he traded two counterfeit cards for two authentic Tom Brady football cards.
"Mr. McNeil defrauded sports memorabilia collectors of more than US$800,000 by intentionally misrepresenting the authenticity of the trading cards he was peddling when, in fact, they were counterfeit," Michael Driscoll, assistant director-in-charge of the FBI's New York field office, said in a news release.
In a brief phone call, McNeil said he was released without bail after an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Colorado.
"I did nothing wrong," he said, declining to comment at length.
Prosecutors said he will appear in a New York courtroom at a later date.
