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Ohio man charged with forging autographs on T206 baseball cards
An Ohio man faces bank fraud charges for allegedly forging autographs on vintage T206 1909-11 baseball cards.
According to WFMJ.com in Youngstown, Ohio, Cord Monroe of Girard, Ohio has been charged with one count of bank fraud. According to the indictment field in U.S. District Court in Cleveland, two auction sites lost more than $73,000 in transactions with Monroe involving 14 forged cards.
According to federal investigators, Monroe, aka David Scott, purchased 14 T206 cards between 2015-18 and forged autographs before consigning them to auctions. According to court documents, Monroe sold forged cards of former Chicago White Sox star Eddie Cicotte for $12,925 in 2017 and another one for $1,250 in October 2018.
Monroe also allegedly sold forged cards of such players as Frank Baker, Nap Rucker and Billy Sullivan totaling more than $45,000 in 2015-16. Other T206 cards with forged signatures included Red Murray, Bob Rhoades, Heinie Zimmerman, Elmer Flick, Fred Snodgrass and Paddy Livingston.
According to WFMJ, the U.S. Attorney filed bank fraud charges as a bill of information, giving Monroe an opportunity to enter a plea without the case going before a grand jury.
The case is the second in the last month charging individuals with fraud and forgery of sports memorabilia items. Three men were indicted in Chicago last month for allegedly committing fraud by selling forged autographs of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Cy Young, Honus Wagner and other baseball greats on baseballs, bats, photos, programs and other sports collectibles.
