Three years in prison for a Pokemon Card scammer
Since lockdown began in 2020, Pokémon Cards has become a very profitable business. They were probably before, but being stuck at home for so long made us look back at these nostalgic-dipped pieces and wonder what they are worth.
Over the past few months, we’ve heard many heartbreaking stories. The person who ran their shiny Charizard Card through the washer (yikes). There were also two thieves who stole booster packs worth around a quarter of a multimillion dollars from a family-run store (shites).
Although there are rumours that the content was faked, Logan Paul claimed that he spent $3.5million to buy a crate first-generation sealed boosters. However, they turned out to be G.I Joe cards (psyche). Since then, Ebay has taken steps to stop counterfeits being sold through its online auction site.
In October 2021 we wrote about Vinath Oudomsine, a Georgian citizen who was granted a loan of $85,000 from federal funding to help his business. The government had set aside the money to help small businesses that were affected by the pandemic.
Instead of supporting his employees and keeping the work flowing, he spent almost $58,000 on one Charizard card. He was able to give it a rating of 9.5.
As Polygon discovered, the sentence has been handed down. Domaine will serve 36 months in prison, though this could be reduced for good behavior – for misuse of government funds. He will then be subject to three years probation (called “supervised release”) after completing his sentence.
His actions will have financial consequences. He will be required to repay the $85,000 loan and also pay a $10,000 penalty. He has also agreed to turn over the Charizard card that started it all. It turns out that Pokemon crime is not a profitable business.
