82-year-old man accused by feds of selling fake Michael Jordan trading cards

An octogenarian scammer sold fake sports trading cards featuring basketball superstar Michael Jordan to collectors for thousands of dollars, the Brooklyn federal prosecutor’s office said Wednesday.

Prosecutors said Mayo Gilbert McNeil, 82, and his as-yet-unindicted associates got their hands on genuine cases, labels and logos from a company that rates trading cards to trick collectors into buying fakes.

His victims, including collectors from Manhasset, Louisiana and Michigan, shelled out more than $800,000 in total for what turned out to be fake, prosecutors said.

Denver-based McNeil has been planning to sell fakes since at least 2015, laying out his plans in emails with an accomplice, according to the criminal lawsuit.

“How is the project going with the new holder?” McNeil asked in an August 2015 email, and his accomplice replied, “You and Jr. [i]In January we are going to travel around the USA with cards in new cases. You earn 5 thousand from each transaction, ”the feds say.

He also began looking for fake IDs after employees at a Las Vegas sports card store realized he had sold them two fake baseball cards, the complaint said. The store had a copy of his driver’s license after the sale.

In the summer of 2019, he met Manhasset’s victim through an online auction site and tricked him into buying a 1986 Michael Jordan Flir card with a 10 out of 10 rating for $4,500, prosecutors allege.

According to the feds, McNeil used his middle name “Gilbert” when he sold several Michael Jordan cards and one to former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to a Michigan victim in 2017.

The same company that made the tamper-resistant cases and labels McNeil used later evaluated the Michael Jordan cards and determined they were counterfeits, authorities said.

According to the complaint, McNeal had several other victims.

This led to an FBI and NYPD investigation and McNeal’s arrest Wednesday morning in Denver. He was brought to federal court in Colorado and will appear in Brooklyn at a later date.

“Fraud protection applies to all consumers, regardless of which team they support,” Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said Wednesday. “Defendant is alleged to have orchestrated a multi-year and far-reaching scheme to defraud the sports trading card enthusiasts and the sports memorabilia industry. Our office is committed to fighting counterfeit products at all levels of the market.”