https://www.actionnetwork.com/nba/how-a ... was-caught
Every time an update comes out about this story it gets even crazier lol
Michael Jordan, Banksy and How a Collectibles Watchdog Turned Into a Fraud
In June of last year, a $150,000 card trade went down just past lunch time at a table inside a McDonald’s in Sydney, Australia.
A long time collector was trading two of his best Michael Jordan cards for a 1986 sealed Fleer basketball box, home to MJ rookie cards.
Both parties arrived on time and the exchange went flawlessly. Nothing was out of the ordinary, until the next day when the collector with the box froze.
He stared at the business card the man had given him. It had the phone number of the man who he traded the box to.
“Is there any insight that you can provide one with, and why you picked me as part of this scam?” he DM’d the man on Instagram.
Within minutes, the man who called himself Johnathan Studdart, had deleted his Instagram (The.apollo.11) and any form of communication that the man had.
Last week, the man who traded the 1986 Fleer Box was sent a post on a Blowout Cards Forum, posted in July 2021, saying to stay away from a guy named Juan Garcia.
The poster had bought a 1985 Michael Jordan signed Star rookie card from Garcia in a silver Beckett graded soft case — the card, the signature and authentication likely all faked.
In the post from three years ago, he posted Garcia’s address in Melbourne.
The address matched the address Steve Hart was sending BBCE product to and Garcia — who at some point had the gaul to tell Hart he was going to buy a 1986 Fleer box.
Hart had told the man who wound up with the Fleer box, likely tampered with and free of Jordans, that address, and he remembered it when it popped up.
Recall those 1983 Olympic cards, which are close to worthless. Why would Garcia pay $300 for them?
Once Hart found out about the fraud, he figured it out.
“The rack pack boxes were the biggest things we sold, so it gave him the biggest piece of our wrapping he could work with,” Hart said.
The man who had been defrauded then revisited the recording from his phone that he made when the transaction happened inside the McDonald’s and listened to the man’s voice. He said he got help from a Cardporn critic who compiled a short video of Garcia’s accent.
Ken Goldin of Goldin Auctions sold roughly $138,000 worth of memorabilia for Garcia in his auctions out of $350 million in total sales. Goldin said that what Garcia sold at the auction house was double certed so he’s not worried about authenticity.
He set up Goldin's 1986 Fleer box break with Drake, a broadcast that commanded many eyeballs. Garcia flew with Goldin on a private plane to see it through.
“For the most part, I hated him and he hated me,” Goldin said. “When my Netflix show came out, he bashed it.”
Goldin might have dodged a bullet.
As part of his consignment to Goldin, Garcia gave him two pieces of Banksy art.
One was called “Warning Sign,” which featured a plane about to hit the Twin Towers. When Goldin saw it, he told Garcia he couldn’t sell it. A second Banksy was also pulled.
Sources said Garcia first tried to sell the Banksys privately for $1.25 million each. When he couldn’t, he went to Goldin with reserves of past $800,000. When Goldin passed, Garcia took them to Heritage Auctions in Dallas, where he took a further haircut. They sold for just $362,500 each.
Pest Control, Banksy’s official authentication group, was reviewing the pieces and certs sold in Heritage, which was doing its own work.
"In light of your initial inquiry, our Urban Art experts and leadership team have been working diligently to access and reevaluate our cataloging and attributions of these pieces," said Heritage's Chris Ivy.
But this is more cause for concern.
Garcia owns a company called artFido, which at one point purported to be the go-to auction site for independent artists. The company claims that "when Banksy wanted to break his infamous shredded painting footage, he went to artFido. True story, trust us. (The real Banksy.)”
When asked about the story, a member of the Pest Control team replied, "not true."
Link to full ariticle:
https://www.actionnetwork.com/nba/how-a ... was-caught
