OCEAN CITY — An Ocean City brewing company owner charged in late January in a $2.5 million counterfeit sports memorabilia scheme officially pleaded guilty this month to one count of wire fraud and now awaits his fate pending a sentencing hearing.
In January, Ocean City Brewing Company owner Joshua Shores, 41, of Pennsylvania and Ocean City, was charged in U.S. District Court in connection with a $2.5 million fraud scheme involving counterfeit sports memorabilia sold over the Internet through his various companies over a period from January 2008 to May 2013. Shores, who owns and operates the Ocean City Brewing Company in the resort, created various Internet businesses in Pennsylvania and Maryland to traffic counterfeit and fraudulent sports memorabilia.
In January, Shores entered a plea agreement in U.S. District Court although the plea was not been formalized. On Monday, Shores waived the right to prosecution by indictment and consented to prosecution by information. He then pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud related to the sale of a counterfeit Cliff Lee-autographed Philadelphia Phillies jersey.
Following the plea, Shores was released on a $50,000 unsecured bond. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, along with a maximum fine of $250,000 along with the forfeiture of a residential property on Chicago Avenue in Ocean City, various vehicles and other personal property allegedly obtained through the proceeds of the fraud scheme. However, not listed among the property included for potential forfeiture is the Ocean City Brewing Company on Coastal Highway in the resort, nor its sister brewery and restaurant operation in Bel Air, Md.
From the beginning, Shores has attempted to deflect any attention from the Ocean City Brewing Company in the resort and its sister operation in Bel Air and continued to separate the entities this week in a formal statement released through his attorney Robert Biddle.
“Ocean City Brewing and Distilling Company will not be impacted by my guilty plea and acceptance of responsibility on Monday, February 29 for very poor decisions I made several years ago,” the statement reads. “Ocean City Brewing will always be a family-run operation, built on family values, and with that philosophy, it will continue to grow and succeed.”
Almost from the beginning, Shores has not shied away from the charges against him and their potential impact on his other businesses, and he continued to own his mistakes this week.
“I deeply regret the decisions I made which destroyed a previous sports business that I built over many years,” the statement reads. “By admitting guilt, I have begun the process to make right the wrongs I committed in operating the sports business.”
According to the charging documents, Shores, through his various Internet companies, obtained counterfeit sports jerseys in bulk from China and affixed autographs to them including the signatures of well-known professional athletes and sports figures. Shores then sold the fraudulent jerseys along with other sports memorabilia through his Internet businesses with fraudulent certificates of authenticity.
The charging documents assert Shores affixed onto the counterfeit sports jerseys and sports items fraudulent autographs purported to be the authentic autograph of notable athletes and sports figures. Shore allegedly rented mailboxes and established mail receiving services with companies located in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Unsuspecting buyers purchased the fraudulent memorabilia from Shores’ Internet businesses through PayPal and Amazon accounts he created.
In one example, in September 2012, a federal agent operating in an undercover capacity in New Jersey conducted an online purchase of a Cliff Lee-autographed Philadelphia Phillies jersey from Stadium Authentics for $249.95 plus shipping. The item’s description as it appeared on Stadium Authentics website stated “This is an authentic Cliff Lee Philadelphia Phillies Majestic Baseball Jersey autographed by Cliff Lee. This authentic jersey was hand-signed and the signature is not a print.”
Upon receipt of the jersey by the undercover agent, the item was sent to the MLB’s Authentication Department in New York. After reviewing the item for authenticity, a licensed Majestic Sports authentication group determined that the jersey was counterfeit. That is just one example. The charging documents assert Shores “fraudulently obtained approximately $2.5 million by selling various counterfeit and fraudulent sports memorabilia by means of wire communications in interstate commerce via his many internet businesses during the years 2008 through 2013.”