Insane Tom Brady ring scandal results in prison time
25-year-old New Jersey man, Scott Spina devises a fraud that is unbelievable, and is handed a three-year stretch in Federal prison for his trouble
Roseland, New Jersey native Scott Spina was looking at decades in prison when he was picked up back at the beginning of the year. He devised a plan to pose as a New England Patriots player so that he could intercept and sell three Super Bowl rings engraved with Tom Brady’s name.
All things considered, he is a very fortunate fellow, considering that U.S. District Judge David Carter in Santa Ana, California handed down only three years in prison for the fraud. Scott Spina, you see is a two-time loser.
The leniency came in recognition of his cooperation with federal investigators as well as taking his guilty plea into account. The charges that he pled guilty to are five felony counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
It all started back in 2017 when Spina purchased the Super Bowl LI championship ring from a former Patriots player, identified in court documents only as “T.J.”. Spina paid the player using a check that bounced, immediately reselling the ring to a southern California well-known broker of championship rings for $63,000.
Spina then contacted the Ring Company, Jostens, posing as “T.J.”, and ordered three Super Bowl rings engraved with the name “Brady”, claiming they were gifts for Brady’s baby.
He sold these fraudulently obtained rings, which were at no time authorized by either the former Patriots player or Tom Brady, to an auction house for $100,000, roughly triple what he had paid for them. One of them was later auctioned for $337,000.
Spina had been looking at a mandatory two-year term just for the identity theft, with his lawyers proposing that two years plus one day would be “more than sufficient” to cover all charges.
This seems to be something of a pattern for the young would-be Moriarty. Spina was only released from prison in 2020, having served a 35-month term for an unrelated wire fraud.
Investigated by the FBI’s Art Crime Team, Spina might want to look for another line of work. He doesn’t seem to be very good at this one.