Posted By:
warshawlawNovember 18, 2004
SAN LORENZO MAN CHARGED WITH
DEFRAUDING EBAY USERS IN AUCTIONS FOR
MICKEY MANTLE AND MICHAEL JORDAN SPORTS CARDS
Defendant Allegedly Sold Mickey Mantle Cards for Over $7,000 Each
The United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California announced that Michael W. Gouveia, 39, of San Lorenzo, California, was indicted yesterday by a federal grand jury in San Jose for allegedly defrauding eBay users of thousands of dollars in auctions for rare Mickey Mantle and Michael Jordan sports cards.
According to the indictment, between June and November 2003, Mr. Gouveia defrauded eBay users of over $30,000 in connection with eBay auctions he hosted for collectible sports player cards. Hosting auctions using online aliases such as "sports-world-inc." and "allnetallday," Mr. Gouveia allegedly accepted money from the winning eBay bidders with no intention of delivering the cards as promised. The fraudulent auctions included the alleged sale of a 1951 Mickey Mantle rookie card, a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card, and several Michael Jordan rookie cards. Mr. Gouveia allegedly received more than $7,000 from eBay users for each of the Mickey Mantle cards.
The ten-count indictment charges defendant with five counts each of mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341 and wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343. The maximum statutory penalty for each violation is 20 years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000. However, any sentence following conviction would be dictated by the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of factors, and would be imposed in the discretion of the Court.
The prosecution is being handled by the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (CHIP) Unit of the United States Attorney's Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Shashi Kewalramani from the CHIP Unit is prosecuting the case with the help of legal assistants Mymy Lam and Lauri Gomez. This prosecution is a result of an investigation by the San Francisco Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. eBay also assisted in this investigation.
A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney's Office's website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can. Related court documents and information may be found on the District Court website at www.cand.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov.