Pokémon playing cards and crime are intimately intertwined at this level, because the collectible playing cards are sometimes wrapped up in robberies and scams on account of their excessive resale worth. Among the tales surrounding Pokémon card gross sales have reached tragic ends, and the whole subculture of scalping, stealing, and reselling these items of cardboard hangs like a cloud over elements of the Pokémon group. However as a fast method to generate income, the entire scheme is fairly interesting, so interesting, in actual fact, {that a} seemingly reformed financial institution robber determined to get in on the grift and scammed folks out of hundreds of thousands.
Anthony Curcio, an notorious financial institution robber who pulled off an elaborate armored automobile heist in Washington state in 2008, has spent a lot of the previous decade as an advocate talking to youth about drug dependancy and crime. However it seems like he’s since made a tough pivot into Pokémon card scamming. Fox 13 Seattle has a narrative on the state of affairs (thanks, Nintendo Wire), which outlines how Curcio, alongside confederate Iosif Bondarchuk, has been scamming consumers of Pokémon and sports activities playing cards to the tune of $2 million.
The pair has allegedly been promoting falsely graded playing cards to consumers, from native card outlets in Washington to nationwide victims by way of on-line gross sales. One among their alleged fakes, a reproduction of a 1986 Michael Jordan card, was listed for $171,700, which caught the eye of the cardboard grader firm Skilled Sports activities Authenticator. Curcio and Bondarchuk might withstand 20 years in jail for his or her crimes if discovered responsible.
Neither Curcio and Bondarchuk have been convicted as of but, and Fox 13 Seattle had no luck getting a remark from Curcio after going to his listed tackle. It’s a disgrace that Curcio spent the final decade seemingly getting out of his lifetime of crime simply to seemingly flip proper again into it. That’s some Workforce Rocket nonsense, however Curcio may be blasting off once more quickly.
