A Massachusetts man was convicted yesterday on wire and mail fraud charges for a scheme in which he advertised Superbowl tickets on eBay, collected approximately $255,000 from customers, and then never provided either the tickets or refunds. United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan and Peter Zegarac, Acting Postal Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in New England, announced that Michael R. Deppe, age 20, was convicted after a 7-day trial before U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor, IV, of 3 counts of Wire Fraud and 2 counts of Mail Fraud.
Deppe had previously pled guilty to the portion of the superseding indictment charging mail and wire fraud, stemming from the earlier part of his fraud scheme, in which he received approximately $115,000 in payments for the purported sale of items such as Rolex watches, but never provided the items or refunded the money, according to the U.S. Attorney.
Through eBay advertisements that he wrote and phone calls he had with customers, Deppe persuaded approximately 41 customers to pay approximately $255,460 for Super Bowl tickets that he falsely promised to obtain. Deppe never provided the Superbowl ticket customers with the tickets for which they paid, and he never refunded their money.
"Con men are using twenty-first century tools to commit fraud and the U.S. Attorney's Office and our partners at federal and state investigative agencies are aggressively developing twenty-first century tools to stop them," said U.S. Attorney Sullivan. "We want it to be as safe to buy things over the Internet on eBay as it is to buy them through the mail from catalogues."
Sentencing is scheduled for August 8, 2006. Deppe faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine on each of the 15 counts, according to the U.S. Attorney.
Sorry, Guv. You're wrong.
New Mexico won't be "big time" until Martians are landing at the Bill Richardson Spaceport near Alamogordo and busing to Albuquerque to see the New Mexico Orbits of the NFL.
We won't be a "major player" until you plop down a 15,000-seat arena between the Winrock and Coronado shopping centers.
Pete Derzis of ESPN predicts the New Mexico Bowl will be "a crown jewel of bowls."
You have to be kidding, Pete. Do you ever get to watch any football on TV, Pete?
Are you trying to say the Fort Worth Bowl is as good as the Rose Bowl or that the New Mexico Bowl will be as watched as the Orange Bowl?
The crown jewels of bowls are Bowl Championship Series bowls featuring teams from leagues like the Big 10, the Pac-10, the Southeast Conference. The New Mexico bowl is an "other" bowl. It features teams from the Western Athletic Conference and the Mountain West.
If the New Mexico Lobos and the New Mexico State Aggies ever play in the New Mexico Bowl, the only TV show with a lower rating will be reruns of "Joey."
Jeff Hurd of the WAC called Albuquerque a "destination city" and called New Mexico a "destination state."
You have to forgive Jeff. He has been spending too much time in those destination hot spots of the WAC - Boise, Idaho; Rustin, La.; Moscow, Idaho; Las Cruces.
New Mexico might be a destination state if you are an illegal immigrant from Europe.
Albuquerque might be a destination city if you live in Gallup or Hobbs.
You might say the footballs were hitting the fan Monday in a back-patting ceremony at University Stadium to announce the 2006 New Mexico Bowl.
Which is really a good thing for New Mexico.
Because when the TV golden throats are talking about all those other crown jewels of bowls - Fiesta, Rose, Orange, Sugar - the New Mexico Bowl surely will be mentioned. New Mexico needs the exposure.
And the bowl surely will bring dozens of tourists from places like maybe Boise, Rustin, Moscow, Las Cruces, tourists who are dying to spend megabucks in a destination city.
OK, we admit it. The New Mexico Bowl is a step forward. But it doesn't take us to the big time. It doesn't make us a major player. It doesn't make us a destination.
Just because you say it, Guv, that doesn't make it true. You should have learned this from listening to President Bush.
A lot of us voted for you, but that doesn't mean we are dumb. You shouldn't push Hamburger Helper in front of us and try to convince us it's filet mignon.
As for the New Mexico Bowl - good work to all involved. If we have nothing to do on a cold Dec. 23 day, we might trot over to University Stadium and check it out.
Some of us like Hamburger Helper.
