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Scott Spina to Plead Guilty to Fraud in Tom Brady Patriots Super Bowl Ring Scheme
December 21, 2021
Federal prosecutors announced Monday that a New Jersey man involved in a scheme to buy and sell Super Bowl rings will plead guilty to fraud.
In 2017, Scott V. Spina Jr. bought a New England Patriots 2016 Super Bowl championship ring from a Patriots player who went on to leave the team.
"When Spina obtained the player ring, he also received the information that allowed the former player to purchase Super Bowl rings for family and friends that are slightly smaller than the player rings," the U.S. attorney’s office statement said, per the Associated Press (via the Washington Times).
Prosecutors said Spina paid the player with a bad check and sold the ring to a Southern California broker of championship rings for $63,000. He then posed as the player he bought the ring from and ordered three more rings with "Brady" engraved on them. According to prosecutors, Spina tried to claim they were gifts for Tom Brady's baby.
Spina sold the rings to an auction house for $100,000 in November 2017, and one of them was auctioned off for more than $337,000 in 2018.
"The rings were at no time authorized by Tom Brady," the criminal complaint stated.
The 24-year-old Spina will plead guilty to five felony charges of wire fraud, mail fraud and aggravated identity theft. He is scheduled for a court appearance in Los Angeles next month and has agreed to repay the former New England player from whom he bought the first ring.
