eBay fraudster nabbed/named

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Posted By: Pete Z.

In today's Washington Post:
San Franciso - A man who purported to offer rare sports cards, including that of baseball legend Mickey Mantle, has been charged with defrauding eBay bidders, federal prosecutors said Thursday. Micheal Gouveia, 39, of San Lorenzo, Calif., was charged late Wednesday in San Jose with five counts of mail fraud and wire fraud in offering a 1951 Mickey Mantle rookie card and a 1952 Mickey Mantle card for sale.

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Posted By: Brian McQueen

I didn't get a chance to read the article in the Washington Post however his name sounds familiar to me. I think he operated on Ebay under the handle SportsWorld-Inc (or something similar). He started his own grading company "GEM" grading and essentially slabbed reprints of big name cards (ie...Mantle rookie, 39 Playball Ted Williams rookie) and graded them out as 9s or 10s. I know that he operated for a long time on Ebay without seemingly any negative feedbacks. Glad this guy has finally been put away.

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Posted By: David McD

Read in my local paper this morning that Gouveia has plead guilty to charges that carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine and that he will be sentenced on December 19th.

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Posted By: Anthony

Seems like he got a much stiffer penalty than the Wiwag guys. I"m not saying this should've been lighter, but that Wiwag should've been a lot heavier.

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Posted By: leon

From what I remember WIWAG folks worked with the govt and maybe that's why they might have gotten off lighter.....regardless they are all scammers and should be dealt with severely, imo....

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Don't think for a second that just because he's facing 20 years that he will get anything near that. My guess is that his sentence will be in the range of months as opposed to years.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

November 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.

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Posted By: Judge Dred (Fred)

Tip of the ice berg.

It's nice to see someone get nailed for their wrong doing.

I wonder if he's been NARUd yet? Just a joke....

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Posted By: Steve

he appears to be the high bidder on this auction.


http://cgi.ebay.com/1952-topps-mickey-mantle-DP-FTC-311_W0QQitemZ5241650803QQcategoryZ16271QQrdZ1QQcmd ZViewItem

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Posted By: Judge Dred (Fred)

Wow, he hasn't been NARUd yet.

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Posted By: Bottom of the Ninth

Anthony,

I suspect there was a lot behind the scenes of the WIWAG crime that will never get in the hands of the right people. CU and WIWAG shared mutual interests in how things were dealt with. Remember the charge they were brought up on was one count of mail fraud, if I am not mistaken.

Greg

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Posted By: Anson

I always wondered why everyting GEM graded was a Gem Mint 10