Three individuals have been arrested and charged in connection with a fraudulent scheme involving the sale of a significant quantity of forged Jason Kelce-autographed memorabilia. As reported by CLLCT, Robert Capone, LeAnn Branco, and Joseph Parenti were taken into custody and charged on Wednesday with 60 felony counts, including forgery, theft, deceptive business practices, and other offenses. Montgomery County (Pa.) District Attorney Kevin R. Steele announced that the charges stem from the sale of forged Jason Kelce autographed items estimated to be worth $200,000.
The district attorney’s office stated that detectives, together with Upper Merion Township police, discovered more than 1,100 pieces of memorabilia bearing forged Kelce signatures. Authorities revealed that the 1,138 forged items, which included signed jerseys, helmets, mini helmets, hats, photos, and footballs, were allegedly fraudulently verified and authenticated by Branco, an independent contractor for Beckett Authentication Services. These charges follow a lawsuit filed by Beckett Collectibles against Branco and Parenti.
“Branco and Parenti have conflicting stories on what happened. But one thing remains certain — Kelce never signed the items,” the lawsuit claims, according to CLLCT. “Instead, defendants flooded the market with forged autographed items, which they then sold. [U]nfortunately, many were duped, including Beckett.” Beckett has stated that it plans to reimburse all affected customers, estimating the total cost of refunds to be approximately $250,000.
“BAS leadership has a detailed and itemized list of all the fraudulent pieces stemming from the June event and will work to ensure that all customers are fully refunded as soon as possible with proof of purchase and receipt of said items,” Beckett explained in a statement. “This announcement is being made now as criminal investigations into this matter have matured, and Beckett can move forward without risk to any investigation.”
Needless to say, this is rather horrible news that led to a lot of reactions on social media. “Imagine going to jail for an OL auto scheme,” one fan wrote on X. “This is nuts,” someone else added. “This doesn’t look good for Beckett,” another person said. “His ‘authentic’ autograph isn’t worth anything. Why risk forging his signature and getting caught, going to jail and having a felony conviction on your record? I’ll never understand forgers but they need to get these creeps out of our hobby,” someone else expressed. “If you’re going to risk it, at least do it with Ohtani or somebody worth [it],” another commenter noted.
According to CLLCT, Kelce has confirmed that he did not sign the memorabilia in question.
