LOS ANGELES — A New Jersey man who lied about his identity to order Tremendous Bowl rings by claiming they had been presents for quarterback Tom Brady’s little one was sentenced to 3 years in jail Monday, prosecutors stated.
Scott Spina Jr., 25, offered the rings to an public sale home for $100,000 in 2017.
He pleaded responsible in February to mail fraud, wire fraud and aggravated id theft, the U.S. lawyer’s workplace in Los Angeles stated in a statement.
The scheme began in September 2017, when Spina purchased a Tremendous Bowl 51 ring from a New England Patriots participant who was now not with the staff, in keeping with courtroom paperwork. The participant is referred to solely as “T.J.”
Within the deal, Spina bought a doc with an online handle for the corporate that sells Tremendous Bowl rings, together with T.J.’s username and password.
Spina then posed as the previous participant and ordered three “household and associates” Tremendous Bowl rings by falsely saying they had been presents for Brady’s child. Brady didn’t have a child on the time.
Spina had the identify “Brady” engraved on each. The household variations are barely smaller than the gamers’ rings however are in any other case related.
Spina then tried to promote them to a supplier in California. That fell via after the supplier bought suspicious, and Spina offered the three to an public sale home for $100,000, in keeping with courtroom paperwork. One of many rings went on to promote for $337,219 at an public sale.
Spina’s lawyer didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Monday evening.
The lawyer argued in a courtroom doc that Spina was 19 years outdated when the fraud occurred and that he had already dedicated to turning his life round throughout a earlier jail time period for fraud.
“I’m now not that younger, reckless, and egocentric individual,” Spina wrote in a letter to U.S. District Choose David O. Carter accompanying the sentencing memorandum.
The rip-off started months after Brady and the Patriots gained Tremendous Bowl 51 in February 2017 by beating the Atlanta Falcons.
Brady would go to win one other Tremendous Bowl with the Patriots — Tremendous Bowl 53 in February 2019, which on the time was his sixth. In 2020, Brady joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and led them to a win in Super Bowl 55, his seventh.
Along with 36 months in jail, Spina was additionally ordered to pay $63,000 in restitution to the unnamed former Patriots participant, in keeping with the U.S. lawyer’s workplace. Spina bilked the participant by paying with not less than one unhealthy verify, the workplace stated.
In 2018, Spina was sentenced to 35 months in prison for failing to ship high-end sneakers and different objects to clients who purchased them and for stealing his clients’ bank card info, in keeping with officers.
Spina was then charged in December within the fraud involving Tremendous Bowl household rings and agreed to plead responsible, prosecutors said.
Andrew Blankstein contributed.
