Pokémon fandom has been elevated to all new heights after man commits a federal crime to get his hands on a Pokémon card.
31-year-old Pokémon fanatic, Vinath Oudomsine, has been sentenced to three years behind bars after doing what he thought was necessary to get his hands on a rare Pokémon card.
I guess the Pokémon slogan “Gotta catch ’em all!” rang especially true with this individual.
The Pokémon diehard falsely submitted information to the US Small Business Administration, claiming that their “Entertainment Service” had been devastated by COVID.
The information included annual revenue reports and the number of employees he had, which are fraudulent because no such business exists.
An Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) of $85,000 AUD was then provided by the government to Mr Oudomsine to aid them and their imaginary business.
Mr Oudomsine took $57,789 to purchase the rare card, a first-edition, shadowless, holographic Charizard card with a 9.5 gem mint rating.
When it comes to Pokémon cards and what people are willing to spend on them, some of the stories are insane, making the spending of this particular story look like chump change.
In January of this year, Logan Paul spent $3.5 million on fake cards, and late last year, Steve Aoki sold $4 million of his collection.
U.S. district court judge Dudley H. Bowen has ordered that Mr Oudomsine pays $95,000, a $10,000 plus the $85,000 loan, and serves three years in prison. He will then have an additional three years of “supervised release” once he is out.
This even after Oudomsine pled guilty and gave the Pokémon card to prosecutors, the state of Georgia is on the right path to starting its collection now.
