Three individuals implicated in selling forged Jason Kelce-signed sports memorabilia valued at over $200K face dozens of felony charges, the Montgomery County District Attorney announced on Thursday.
Robert Capone, 51, LeeAnn Branco, 43, and Joseph Parenti, 39, were charged with 60 felonies, including forgery, theft by deception and dealing in the proceeds of unlawful practices, after attempting to pass over a thousand counterfeit sports memorabilia items purportedly autographed by Kelce as authentic goods.
According to the District Attorney’s office, the three suspects used Branco’s status as a Beckett Authentication Services employee to ‘verify’ forged Kelce signatures that he supposedly gave at the Valley Forge Casino Hotel in Pennsylvania in June 2024. The fake items were then listed for sale with a certificate of authenticity by Overtime Promotions and Diamond Legends, which are owned by Capone and Parenti, respectively.
‘The value of these 1,138 memorabilia items—including signed jerseys, helmets, mini-helmets, hats, photos, footballs and other items—was approximately $200,000,’ the District Attorney’s office said in a statement.
The Montgomery County District Attorney was alerted to the counterfeit items in June 2024 by THC Humphreys LLC, the sports memorabilia company that contracted Kelce to conduct a legitimate signing at a private event at the Valley Forge Casino Hotel on the days that the forged merchandise was said to be signed.
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‘Branco and Parenti attended the legitimate signing event on June 11, 2024, at the Valley Forge Casino Hotel, and Branco secured a photo with Kelce in order to validate her in-the-presence authentication of the forged memorabilia that was never actually signed by Kelce,’ the statement added.
In a statement to ABC News, Beckett Authentication Services apologized to anyone impacted by the scam and promised a refund. ‘A bad-acting independent contractor broke Beckett protocols. Luckily, we have identified this scheme, involved the authorities to take all proper legal action and are now looking to buy back all the fraudulent memorabilia,’ the company said. The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.
