A New Jersey man has agreed to plead guilty to impersonating a former New England Patriots player in a scheme to obtain and sell Tom Brady Super Bowl rings, federal prosecutors said Monday.
Scott V. Spina Jr., 24, was charged with fraud and identity theft after he purchased three Super Bowl rings engraved with Brady's name and falsely claimed that they were made for the football player's relatives, according to the U.S. attorney's office for the Central District of California.
The scheme first began in 2017, when Spina bought a Patriots' Super Bowl LI championship ring from a former player. Prosecutors said Spina paid the player, who was not identified in court documents, with at least one bad check and sold the ring for $63,000 to a California ring broker.
When Spina bought the ring, prosecutors said he also learned that former players have the ability to purchase Super Bowl rings for family and friends that are slightly smaller than those given to players.
"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," prosecutors said, according to the attorney's office. "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."
Prosecutors said Spina attempted to sell the three family-sized rings to the same California broker for $81,500, or nearly three times more than what he purchased them for. Once the buyer realized that Spina may be lying about the origin of the rings, he backed out of the deal, and Spina proceeded to sell the rings to an auction house for $100,000.
The next year, one of the family rings was sold at auction for $337,219, according to prosecutors.
On Monday, Spina agreed to plead guilty and admitted to defrauding the broker when he falsely claimed that the rings "were ordered for Tom Brady directly from [the Ring Company] for select family members," according to prosecutors. In total, the 24-year-old has been charged with one count of mail fraud, three counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
According to prosecutors, Spina faces a maximum penalty of 92 years in federal prison, but will likely be granted a substantially less sentence. As part of his guilty plea, he has also agreed to pay restitution to the former Patriots player who sold his Super Bowl ring in the first place.
Spina is scheduled to make his appearance in a federal court on January 31 in Los Angeles.
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