You may remember last year we brought you the story of Vinath Oudomsine, a Georgia man who was so determined to “catch ‘em all” that he conned Uncle Sam out of tens of thousands of dollars and spent most of it on a rare Pokémon card.
Well, the entrepreneurial 31-year-old has had the Pokédex thrown at him by the US Government – to the tune of a US$10,000 fine, repayment of the initial US$85,000 COVID-19 business loan, and 36 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release; the card in question, a holographic first-edition Charizard (pictured) has also been seized.
“COVID-19 disaster relief loans are issued by the government to help businesses struggling to survive during a pandemic, not to use for trivial collectible items,” said Philip Wislar, Acting Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta.
“This sentence highlights the FBI’s commitment to aggressively pursue anyone who would abuse taxpayer dollars and divert them from citizens who desperately need them.”
To add insult to injury, Pokémon card expert Charlie Hurlocker says the hapless Pokémaniac didn’t even get a good deal on the card in the first place, as he bought it at the height of a trading card craze that saw hugely inflated prices.
“He was buying at the peak of the market. It was a terrible short-term purchase. Nobody was willing to pay more than him,” Charlie told the New York Times.
The US Government plans to auction off the card to recoup some money – but Charlie says that, if it were him, he’d hold off until the market picks up again.
Do you think they’d trade for our Bulbasaur?
