Man convicted of selling fake Michael Jordan, Pokémon trading cards

A Washington state man has been convicted of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his involvement in a years-long scheme to sell fake Pokémon and sports trading cards, defrauding buyers out of more than $2 million.

A federal jury in Manhattan found Anthony Curcio, of Redmond, guilty of both felony counts on Jan. 28, in a scheme to defraud customers by selling them trading cards with forged grades allegedly issued by Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton announced in a statement through his office.

Curcio, the Jan. 29 release reads, was found guilty following a two-and-a-half-week trial before U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams.

According to a federal indictment and evidence presented at trial, from 2022 to May 2024, Curcio and his co-defendant in the case, Iosif Bondarchuk, sold and attempted to sell the cards to victims across the country "with authenticity and condition grades purportedly issued by PSA, but which had been forged by Curcio."

Bondarchuk, 38, of Lake Stevens, Washington, previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud, prosecutors said.

A ringleader, a front man and a more than $2M scheme

Curcio directed the scheme and used Bondarchuk "as a front man" to interact with victims and list cards for sale on an online marketplace as well as at card shops, auctions and card shows.

The pair then sold and attempted to sell trading cards with counterfeit grades for sometimes up to hundreds of thousands of dollars each, when the cards were worth "only a small fraction of those respective sums," the prosecutor's office wrote in the release. The duo, the release continues, attempted to deprive victims of more than $2 million through their sales.

The scheme focused on selling cards that would sell from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars if they had received a PSA 9 or 10 grade, particularly Michael Jordan rookie cards.

PSA authenticates and assesses the quality of cards for the collectables market, grading them from 1 to 10. Higher grades can significantly increase a card's value.

"Curcio sold ungraded or lower-graded cards for more than they were worth by cleaning the rating and serial numbers off of real PSA labels and then printing fake 9 or 10 grades and new serial numbers on the PSA labels," the release said.

Some buyers confronted Curcio when they realized the rare, highly graded cards they paid for were fraudulent; so he refunded the buyers, took back the cards and then resold them to new victims, the release said.

When is sentencing for Anthony Curcio?

Curcio is slated to be sentenced on May 12, the prosecutor's office told USA TODAY.

Bondarchuk, who entered his respective plea on Dec. 16, is set to be sentenced on June 16.

Under the law, both men face up to 20 years for each count.

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X @nataliealund.