OCEAN CITY- An Ocean City business owner, who pleaded guilty last year to one count of wire fraud for his role in a $2.5 million counterfeit sports memorabilia scheme carried out over the Internet, was sentenced this week to five years in federal prison and was ordered to pay $500,000 in restitution.
In January 2016, Ocean City Brewing Company owner Joshua Shores, 42, of Pennsylvania and Ocean City, was charged in U.S. District Court in connection with a $2.5 million fraud scheme involving counterfeit sports memorabilia sold over the Internet through his various companies over a period from January 2008 to May 2013. Shores, who owns and operates the Ocean City Brewing Company, created various Internet businesses in Pennsylvania and Maryland to traffic counterfeit and fraudulent sports memorabilia.
Last March, Shores entered an agreement in which he pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. Back in U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania on Thursday, Shores was sentenced to five years in prison, followed by two years of supervised probation upon his release. He was also ordered to pay $500,000 restitution, some of which will be used to compensate the victims in his vast fraudulent sports memorabilia scheme.
Shores was facing a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison along with the forfeiture of a residential property on Chicago Avenue in Ocean City along with various vehicles and other property allegedly obtained through the proceeds of the fraud scheme and many of those forfeitures have already been conducted. However, not listed among the property for potential forfeiture is the Ocean City Brewing Company on Coastal Highway in Ocean City or its sister brewery and restaurant operation in Bel Air.
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I don't think it was too harsh of a penalty. Then again, there is no "early parole" in Federal Courts. He'll do the five years.
ReplyDeleteYou have to look at this from the victim's point of view.
Many of these people bought these items as an investment. They lost everything on the purchase.
Some may have ended up in charitable events, etc.
And finally, it's my opinion that you don't continue a fraud for over five years and then suddenly feel remorse.
A con man that got caught, that's all this is.
Josh doesn't and never did own oc brewing.
ReplyDeleteGive me a break. He used the fraudulent millions to start the brewery and then put his mom as owner. She didn't even work so where do you think she got the funds to open up a brewery the size of OC Brewery. People are so dumb and naive.
Deleteguess this means the new place wont be opening next to Barnes and Noble in Salisbury.
ReplyDeletePersonally, if I had the choice of a genuine Raven's shirt for $25 or a "fake" for $5, I guess I would be a willing "victim".
ReplyDeleteFUH-FUH-FUH-FIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE YEARS!
ReplyDeleteHope it was worth it!
OUCH!!!!!!!!
Wish I has enough sense to do something to make some large that fast and easy.
ReplyDelete4:02 You can't even write a coherent sentence. Stick to waving cars around road construction sites.
ReplyDeleteThat is not long enough. Court needs to send a better message. It should have been max allowed by law. This dude is only sorry because he got caught.
ReplyDeleteWhite people justice.
ReplyDeleteThis guy is a con man who ripped off alot of innocent people. All of his profits went into opening these businesses. When the heat came at him he put his Mother in as and onwner. Class act !
ReplyDeleteGuess it pays to steal millions, open a business using the money and put the owner down as your mother so the Feds can't take it. That way, the family is set up financially while you're in jail and then you are set for life when you get out. What a joke our justice system is!! Would you trade 5 years to be set up for life?? That's exactly what this con man did. Now he has other people running his businesses for him. I'm sure the employees will steal from him and rob him blind while he's away. It's payback time.
DeleteI laugh when I see that he says he's a good man. He's a narcissist who preys off people. He's a complete scam.
Poor guy should be a wake up call to live right, people make bad choices that's all there is to it, but the real dirty folk are the ignorant assholes posting on this talking about shit they don't know about. None of know the inner workings of that dude's life, so until we do shut the fuck up and have remorse for his family
ReplyDeleteThe story was fairly detailed...EXCEPT to let the reader know if he was immediately incarcerated, or is he out on bail for an appeal?
ReplyDeleteIf it's an appeal, he has a good two or three years before that verdict comes in.
By that time he will have made plenty of profits on the seed money that he got through a fraud.
American justice. BS.
11:05 the judge gave him 30 days to report to federal prison to begin his sentence.
ReplyDeleteWhat he deeply regrets is getting caught. God only knows what he is using for beer ingredients
ReplyDelete