Man accused of fraud with online auctions

Posted on Fri, Nov. 19, 2004





Man accused of fraud with online auctions

By Chuck Carroll

Mercury News


An East Bay man was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in San
Francisco for allegedly defrauding eBay bidders who paid thousands of
dollars each for the official trading cards of sports stars Mickey Mantle
and Michael Jordan.

The indictment alleges that San Lorenzo resident Michael W. Gouveia, 39,
under various online aliases, accepted payments totaling more than $30,000
for collectible player cards through the San Jose-based Internet auction
house even though he had ``no intention of delivering the cards as
promised.''

Gouveia allegedly received more than $7,000 from eBay users for the 1951 and
1952 Topps cards of Mantle. He also offered some cards from Jordan's rookie
year.

He is charged with five counts of mail fraud and five counts of wire fraud
in connection with the auctions, which allegedly occurred last year from
June to November. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in
prison.

The prosecution is being handled by the Computer Hacking and Intellectual
Property (CHIP) Unit of the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco. The
initial investigation was carried out by the U.S. Postal Service with the
help of eBay.


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Contact Chuck Carroll at or (650) 688-7598.