Michael 
Around four months ago, we wrote about how the federal government is prosecuting a man in Georgia for using COVID relief funds to purchase Pokemon cards. When we originally wrote that article, many details about the case were still unclear. More importantly, we wanted to know exactly what card he was risking prison-time for.
Lucky for us, a press release from the Department of Justice spilled all the juicy details. The 31 year old man plead guilty and was sentenced to 36 months in prison. Furthermore, the man will have to repay the entirety of the $85,000 COVID loan while also paying an additional $10,000 as a fine.
The documents revealed that the man spent precisely $57,789 of the relief funds to purchase a graded first-edition Charizard. Investigators traced the card back to a listing from the PWCC marketplace. The card, which holds a 9.5 Gem Mint rating from Beckett, sold right around the same time prosecutors claim he had made the purchase.
All of this excitement begs the question: is three years of prison really worth a Charizard with that crappy centering? I’ll let you guys be the judge.
