Pokémon playing cards and crime are intimately intertwined at this level, because the collectible playing cards are sometimes wrapped up in robberies and scams as a result of their excessive resale worth. Among the tales surrounding Pokémon card gross sales have reached tragic ends, and all the subculture of scalping, stealing, and reselling these items of cardboard hangs like a cloud over components of the Pokémon group. However as a fast option to generate profits, the entire scheme is fairly interesting, so interesting, actually, {that a} seemingly reformed financial institution robber determined to get in on the grift and scammed individuals out of thousands and 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 chatting with youth about drug habit and crime. But it surely appears like he’s since made a tough pivot into Pokémon card scamming. Fox 13 Seattle has a narrative on the scenario (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 retailers in Washington to nationwide victims by way of on-line gross sales. One in every of 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 may resist 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 handle. 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 Staff Rocket nonsense, however Curcio may be blasting off once more quickly.