New Jersey Man Gets 3 Years in Prison for Fake Tom Brady Super Bowl Ring Scam

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A New Jersey man has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for his role in a 2017 Super Bowl ring scam.

Scott V. Spina Jr., 25, of Roseland, N.J., was sentenced on Monday in an Orange County, California court and ordered to pay back a former New England Patriots player, identified in court papers as "T.J.," $63,000 in restitution, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The scam began when Spina purchased a ring, using a bad check, from T.J., who subsequently left the team. Spina then sold the ring for $63,000 to a "well-known broker of championship rings," the DOJ said.

"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," according to the release.

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Spina then purchased family versions of the team's 2016 Super Bowl championship ring — saying they were gifts to nephews of then-quarterback Tom Brady — and tried to sell them to the Orange County broker who bought the ring.

Tom Brady/instagram

After agreeing to buy the three rings for $81,500, which was about three times what Spina paid for them, per the DOJ, the buyer started to doubt Spina's story about Brady's family members and backed out of the deal.

Spina later sold them to an auction house for $100,000, and one of the rings was eventually sold for $337,219 at a February 2018 auction.

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Spina pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud, three counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft on February 1, admitting in his plea agreement that he defrauded the ring broker.

"He accepts responsibility for his actions," Spina's attorney Thomas Ambrosio, said Tuesday, according to The New York Times. "He is disappointed in the fact that he has to go back to prison."

Spina was sentenced to 35 months in prison in 2018 for committing wire fraud in an unrelated scheme where he sold high-end sneakers, his attorney told the newspaper.