The jury came back in four hours. The case did not end there. Anthony Curcio was convicted in the Southern District of New York in January of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud, for selling sports and Pokémon cards inside PSA slabs carrying grades he had forged. This blog covered what that trial actually proved in CASE #0252. What has happened since the verdict is a different story, and a Business Insider profile published August 19 lays it out: a civil suit against the grading company, a failed bid for a new trial, and a sentencing date still ahead.

About the photograph: the slab Curcio is holding above is labeled 1988 Fleer Sticker #7, Michael Jordan, GEM MT 10, cert 25799378. That is a different card from the 1986 Fleer Jordan rookie at the center of the criminal case, and nothing in Business Insider's reporting identifies the pictured card as one of the forgeries.

What the verdict settled

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, Curcio, 45, of Redmond, Washington, was convicted at trial of both counts. His co-defendant, Iosif Bondarchuk, 38, of Lake Stevens, Washington, pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy and wire fraud and testified for the government. Prosecutors said the scheme ran from at least 2022 to May 2024 and sought to deprive victims of more than $2 million by cleaning the grades and serial numbers off genuine PSA labels, printing fake 9s and 10s, and resealing the cards in reused holders. Each count carries a maximum of 20 years, though the office notes that sentencing is the judge's to determine.

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in the announcement that "millions of Americans participate in our collectibles markets, and they should be free from fraud and manipulations," calling the conviction "a cautionary tale for those who would abuse the collectibles markets."

The defense that never reached the jury

Curcio's lawyers wanted to argue that the real wrongdoer was PSA. Before the trial began, the judge ruled that PSA's own conduct was not on trial — so the jury never heard it. Six weeks after the verdict, in March, Curcio filed a 61-page civil suit against PSA's parent, Collectors, in King County Superior Court, raising the allegations he had been barred from presenting. Business Insider reports the suit claims PSA deactivated his Michael Jordan card without physically examining it, that PSA staff opened his holders and passed the components to the FBI without a warrant or subpoena, and that the company's reports to law enforcement were self-interested rather than good-faith. The case has since been removed to federal district court, where it is pending.

A PSA spokesperson told Business Insider the company would not discuss the specifics of pending litigation "other than to state that Anthony Curcio's claims against PSA are without merit," adding that PSA looks forward to "affirming our brand and reputation through the legal process." No court has ruled on any of it.

A second push also failed. In May, Curcio wrote to the judge alleging his trial counsel, Simpson Thacher, had an undisclosed conflict through its work with Point72, the hedge fund of Steve Cohen — an investor in Collectors. The firm told the court that work was "wholly unrelated" to the trial. The court denied his motion for a new trial.

The backdrop the trial happened against

  • December 2025: Rep. Pat Ryan of New York wrote to the Federal Trade Commission asking it to open an antitrust investigation into Collectors, citing a roughly 80% share of the card-grading market and the company's acquisition of price-tracker Card Ladder. A letter requesting an investigation is not an investigation — no FTC action has been announced.
  • April 2026: collectors organized a boycott, #NoPSAMay, alleging PSA had upgraded grades on cards it bought back cheaply and resold, that bulk turnaround had stretched to nearly eight months, and that fees rose twice in a year. These are organizers' claims, not audited findings.
  • He has won once. Business Insider reports a Washington State court entered a $123,267 default judgment in Curcio's favor in March 2024 in a defamation suit against a dealer who publicly called him a counterfeiter — a judgment he says remains unpaid.

Analysis: None of this touched PSA's business. Business Insider reports the company graded 19 million cards in 2025 against 2 million in 2020, and that Collectors announced a $200 million investment and 1,000 new jobs in May. The pattern worth watching is not whether the boycott worked — it plainly did not — but that a criminal defendant, a sitting congressman, and an organized customer revolt all arrived at the same argument about concentration in grading within a few months of each other, from completely different directions. That convergence is our reading, not a finding in any of these sources.

The verdict is in and the story is not over. Curcio is scheduled to be sentenced in October, and his civil case against Collectors is live in federal court. For collectors, the practical lesson hasn't changed since CASE #0252: the label is the product, and the label can be faked.

Sourcing: the conviction, charges, defendants, dates and the $2 million figure come from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York's announcement. The civil suit, the denied new-trial motion, the Simpson Thacher and Point72 details, the Rep. Pat Ryan letter, the #NoPSAMay allegations, the defamation judgment, PSA's statements and the grading-volume figures come from David Kushner's August 19 Business Insider profile; BroBible covered the same profile on August 20. Allegations in the civil suit and claims by boycott organizers are described here as allegations and claims because no court or regulator has ruled on them. Passages marked Analysis are this blog's interpretation.