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Scott Spina Jr. and his girlfriend boarded their flight dwelling to New Jersey from Georgia with some useful baggage: a championship ring from Tremendous Bowl LI.
The ring, manufactured from white gold molded into the form of a soccer and emblazoned with 283 diamonds, was engraved with the phrases “GREATEST COMEBACK EVER,” a nod to the New England Patriots’ historic 25-point comeback victory over the Atlanta Falcons.
Spina had simply written a verify to a former Patriots participant for the ring in September 2017. In all, the deal can be price $32,000, however it was cash Spina knew he didn’t have.
After federal investigators uncovered the scheme, Spina pleaded responsible in February to at least one rely of mail fraud, three counts of wire fraud and one rely of aggravated id theft. On Monday, U.S. District Choose David O. Carter sentenced Spina, 25, to a few years in jail and ordered him to pay $63,000 in restitution to the previous Patriots participant.
The previous participant, recognized in court docket information solely as “T.J.,” was struggling together with his skilled soccer profession when he bought the ring to Spina.
Drafted out of Florida State College in 2015, the offensive lineman was sidelined by a knee damage and didn’t play a single snap in his second season, watching because the Patriots went on to win the Tremendous Bowl in 2017. He was launched from the crew that April.
With out an NFL contract, T.J. was touring forwards and backwards between his dwelling in Jesup, Ga., and Boston, court docket paperwork mentioned. He had tried to promote the Tremendous Bowl ring to a pawn store in Jesup however was turned down.
Then, in late September 2017, Spina despatched T.J. a message on Instagram in regards to the ring, saying he was shut pals with rapper Fats Joe and bought sneakers to celebrities.
The subsequent day, Spina flew to Georgia and met T.J. outdoors a gasoline station in Jesup. Spina wrote the dangerous verify, and T.J. handed over his Tremendous Bowl ring, nonetheless inside its black field, together with rings from his faculty soccer years.
Spina took not solely T.J.’s ring but in addition his id. As a part of the deal, prosecutors wrote in a plea settlement, he obtained the participant’s login credentials for the ring producer and went on to purchase three extra Tremendous Bowl rings, posing as the previous Patriot.
“That is ‘T.J.’ — I’m gonna place a few ring orders as we speak,” he mentioned over the cellphone with the ring manufacturing firm. “I need to get, uh, a quarterback a gift for his child.”
“What’s the, the um, quarterback final identify that you simply’re seeking to order it for?” the corporate worker mentioned.
“Brady,” Spina mentioned, spelling it out to verify, “B-R-A-D-Y.”
Spina then made a take care of a widely known collector of championship rings in Orange County, sending images of the three rings and claiming they have been ordered by T.J. as items for Brady’s nephews.
The Orange County man agreed to pay $81,000 for the three rings and wired $6,500 to Spina as a deposit with the title, “Tom Brady Household 2016 New England Patriots Tremendous Bowl Rings!”
However the collector did some analysis and came upon Brady didn’t have any nephews. In November 2017, he requested Spina to cancel the deal.
That very same day, Spina, nonetheless decided to promote the rings, turned to an public sale home, the place he bought the three rings for $100,000, claiming that Brady had approved the unique buy of the rings.
One of many rings can be auctioned off for greater than $300,000.
When T.J. realized his verify from Spina had bounced, he tried messaging Spina however received no response. He gave up after studying Spina had been arrested and was in jail on different costs.
Authorities didn’t say who tipped off federal investigators about Spina’s scheme. By December, Spina was charged in in federal court docket in California.
Spina’s protection legal professional, Thomas Ambrosio, mentioned this yr that his consumer accepted duty for what he did and declined to remark additional.
