- A New Jersey man posed as an ex-Patriots player to buy Super Bowl rings and sell them for huge profits.
- The family rings were engraved with the surname of former Pats quarterback Tom Brady.
- Scott Spina, 24, will plead guilty to charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft.
A New Jersey man who posed as an ex-New England Patriots player in order to buy and sell Super Bowl rings engraved with Tom Brady's name has been charged with fraud, federal prosecutors said Monday.
Scott Spina, 24, began buying Super Bowl rings in 2017 when he purchased a Super Bowl LI ring from a Patriots player using at least one bad check, the United States' Attorney's Office Central District of California said Monday.
Spina then sold that ring for $63,000 to a broker, the California Attorney's office added.
When he obtained the player ring, Spina also gathered information that allowed him to pose as the unnamed player, who has since left the team, and purchase Super Bowl rings, pretending they were for family and friends.
According to the criminal information filed Monday: "Spina then called the Ring Company, fraudulently identified himself as [the former player], and started ordering three family and friend Super Bowl LI rings with the name 'Brady' engraved on each one, which he falsely represented were gifts for the baby of quarterback Tom Brady.
"The rings were at no time authorized by Tom Brady. Defendant Spina intended to obtain the three rings by fraud and to sell them at a substantial profit."
Spina then entered into an agreement with a man to sell him the three family rings that he claimed Brady had given to his nephews.
However, after the buyer became suspicious and backed out, Spina sold them to an auction house for $100,000. One of the rings later sold at auction for $337,219.
—US Attorney L.A. (@USAO_LosAngeles) December 21, 2021
In a plea agreement filed on Monday, Spina agreed to plead guilty to the five felony offenses with which he has been charged — one count of mail fraud, three counts of wire fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft.
As part of the agreement, the 24-year-old also agreed to pay restitution to the former Patriots player who sold him his Super Bowl ring.
Spina will appear in court in Los Angeles on January 31 next year, where he is expected to enter his guilty pleas.
He will face a statutory maximum penalty of 92 years in federal prison, though the actual sentence will likely be "substantially less," according to the United States' Attorney's Office Central District of California.
Brady, who was won a record seven Super Bowl rings, had a day to forget on Sunday as he failed to throw a single touchdown in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' 9-0 loss to the New Orleans Saints.
During the defeat, the quarterback was captured by TV cameras angrily throwing away a tablet on which he was watching film.
—Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) December 20, 2021
"Just a tough night. Didn't do much of anything right," Brady said after the game. "So we gotta get a lot better. Gotta get back to work."