By Free Republic | Created at 2024-11-24 10:30:44 | Updated at 2024-11-24 12:44:29
2 hours ago
Man who bought Jackie Robinson contracts pleads guilty to wire fraud (was facing a maximum sentence of over 300 years)
ESPN ^ | 11/22/24 | Dan Hajducky
Posted on 11/24/2024 2:29:57 AM PST by Libloather
Mykalai Kontilai, the broadcast executive-turned-entrepreneur who bought Jackie Robinson's first major and minor league professional contracts and then used them to launch a sports memorabilia/auction business, pleaded guilty to wire fraud Thursday in Las Vegas.
He will be sentenced Dec. 4 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, according to the Department of Justice.
Kontilai, 55, purchased Robinson's Montreal Royals contract for the 1946 season and Robinson's 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers contract for $2 million in 2013, subsequently using their purported value to lure investors into his sports memorabilia/auction business called, at various times, Collector's Café or Collector's Coffee ("CCI").
Kontilai then raised more than $23 million and misappropriated $6.1 million to bankroll his own "lavish lifestyle," manufactured evidence to mislead federal investigators, and "concealed the proceeds of his scheme" from the IRS.
In mid-2019, Kontilai left the United States amid SEC and DOJ investigations, eventually unsuccessfully claiming asylum in Russia as a whistleblower of American corruption.
In 2020, he was charged in an 18-count indictment in Nevada that included securities fraud, multiple counts of wire fraud, money laundering and failure to file tax returns -- and a six-count indictment in Colorado including conspiracy to obstruct proceedings, obstruction of proceedings, tampering with documents and false statements.
(Excerpt) Read more at espn.com ...
TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; Conspiracy; Sports
KEYWORDS: contracts; fraud; guilty; robinson
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In April 2023, Kontilai was arrested in Germany on an Interpol red notice and held at the Stadelheim Prison in Munich for a year.
Idiot. If he did all his misappropriatin' in NY, out the next day.
1 posted on 11/24/2024 2:29:57 AM PST by Libloather
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