Man Gets 3 Years in Scheme to Sell Bogus Tom Brady Super Bowl Rings

The broker agreed to buy the rings for $81,500, prosecutors said.

But as he was preparing to fly to New Jersey to pick up the rings, the broker became concerned that Mr. Brady did not actually have nephews and tried to back out of the deal, prosecutors said.

Mr. Spina then sold the rings to an auction house for $100,000, prosecutors said. In February 2018, the auction house sold one of the rings to an unnamed buyer for $337,219, prosecutors said.

The authentic, original rings are undoubtedly valuable. In 2020, the owner of the New England Patriots, Robert K. Kraft, auctioned his championship ring from the Super Bowl in 2017 for more than $1 million, with the proceeds going to charity. And his ring from the Super Bowl in 2005 reportedly ended up in the possession of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, when he handed it to Mr. Putin during a business trip. Mr. Putin put on the ring and kept it, Mr. Kraft has said.

Mr. Spina admitted in his plea agreement that he defrauded the Orange County ring broker when he falsely claimed that the rings he had “were ordered for Tom Brady directly” and that they were “for select family members,” prosecutors said.

“The rings,” prosecutors wrote in court documents, “were at no time authorized by Tom Brady.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/30/us/tom-brady-ring-fraud.html