In a verdict that is sending ripples through the collectibles market, Anthony Curcio was convicted of running a fraudulent operation dealing in sports and Pokémon trading cards, as announced yesterday by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton. Curcio's elaborate scam hinged upon the sale of these trading cards, which were doctored with phony grades alleged to be from the esteemed Professional Sports Authenticator, or PSA, a detail confirmed in a guilty verdict following a trial that extended over two weeks before U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams.
Curcio's deception spanned from 2022 to May 2024 and his methods were both calculated and cunning; he enlisted an accomplice, Iosif Bondarchuk, as a figurehead to communicate with unwitting victims and conduct sales across a variety of digital marketplaces and auction sites this operation sought to defraud collectors out of more than $2 million by peddling trading cards with counterfeit grades, all while the value of these cards, if truly evaluated, tallied up to a mere sliver of the inflated prices they fetched under Curcio and Bondarchuk's fraudulent pretenses.
The tainted allure of a high PSA grade was the cornerstone of Curcio's fraudulent ruse—particularly with vintage and sought-after items like Michael Jordan rookie cards—and Pokémon cards that could haul in exorbitant price tags if they were deemed a PSA 9 or 10; yet, instead, Curcio hawked ungraded cards or those of inferior condition at prices unwarranted by their true value, after meticulously removing real PSA labels and replacing them with falsified higher grades and serial numbers.
The jury's decision has now spelled out serious consequences for Curcio, now 45, with convictions on both conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud charges and facing the possibility of up to 20 years in the slammer for each count, while Bondarchuk, 38, has already entered a guilty plea on similar charges, with the sentencing determined by the judge, according to a statement obtained by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The professional diligence of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was hailed by Mr. Clayton in the wake of the trial's conclusion, accentuating the collaborative efforts that led to Curcio's downfall, these proceedings were managed by the Office's Illicit Finance and Money Laundering Unit, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys David R. Felton, Kingdar Prussien, and Cecilia Vogel leading the prosecution charge.
