#7) Consumer fraud p. 47
#6) Common fraud p. 49
#17) Negligent misrepresentation p.56
Eli's problem is that he signed a lot of game stuff as genuine -- under contract.
This sounds like a serious --not frivolous-- trial.
He should settle it and get on with life.
Unfortunately the other defendants -- Giants and the memorabilia contractor -- are in the same trial, complicating matters.
Eli's lawyers tried and failed in court to get a summary judgement against these 3 counts. Judge DeLuca said there was sufficient evidence to warrant a trial.
could Eli possibly be looking at any actual jail time or would a guilty verdict amount to fines and community service?? This seems ridiculous are the courts trying to set an example??
Skiba, the equipment manager who provided the allegedly fake game stuff,
won two summary judgements to dismiss cases vs him of Consumer fraud and Common Fraud.
While Eli is being tried on these same charges.
The key difference is that it is not against the fraud laws to create fake used equipment. It is against the law to sell or assist in selling it.
Skiba was accused of the wrong things. He arguably should have been accused of assisting Eli in breaking the fraud laws. But he wasn't. That is another story.
could Eli possibly be looking at any actual jail time or would a guilty verdict amount to fines and community service?? This seems ridiculous are the courts trying to set an example??
I believe this is a civil suit, not a criminal prosecution. He wouldn't be found "guilty," he'd be found "liable," right BBI lawyers. He can't be put in jail, but he could have a big judgement against him and have to pay a lot of money.
That's one risk. As others have observed, if he were to lose the suit, he'd probably be suspended, and that may be the bigger risk. Judging by the suspension that Brady got, we would probably get an extended look at Davis Webb.
I don't know the facts, but if you take the worst case scenario in which Eli was a knowing participant in a fraud, here's what he was possibly thinking:
"I'm a big star who makes $20M/year and millions more in endorsements and perks and here is this equipment manager (who lives a middle class existence and services me with the quality equipment I require) coming to me and asking for some of game worn/used stuff so that he can make an extra buck and then he tells me that it doesn't even have to be the actual stuff if it has sentimental value to me. All I need to do is sign off on it. It's a victimless crime, really. The consumer gets the same satisfaction/joy of owning pretend jerseys/helmets/etc that he would get from the real stuff, Skiba makes some extra money to support his family, and I get to keep the stuff that has sentimental value to me. Everybody is a winner."
Eli's problem here is that NJ's consumer protection laws are strict enough that even being involved in the scam, without knowing it was a scam, could make him legally liable.
could Eli possibly be looking at any actual jail time or would a guilty verdict amount to fines and community service?? This seems ridiculous are the courts trying to set an example??
signed a written contract with the memorabilia seller to provide 2 gameworn and autographed jerseys and 2 helmet annually. The contract payments were for the autographs, not the equipment, which nominally still belonged to the Giants, and were in effect being gifted to Eli.
Skiba provided the equipment but did not profit from that since he was not paid be Eli for it.-- as far as we know from testimony.
Eli and his company both warranted the equipment provided was genuine gameworn -- Eli wrote "gameworn" on the equipment.
is limited to the damage he "caused". He is being sued for the value of two supposedly fake helmets. These are wotth about $15,000 each if real.
Why Eli has not settled for say $50,000 -- voluntarily, without admitting guilt -- as a "goodwiill gesture" is unfathomable. His legal expenses will be far more than that. This all makes no sense.
is limited to the damage he "caused". He is being sued for the value of two supposedly fake helmets. These are wotth about $15,000 each if real.
Why Eli has not settled for say $50,000 -- voluntarily, without admitting guilt -- as a "goodwiill gesture" is unfathomable. His legal expenses will be far more than that. This all makes no sense.
That indicates to me that he does not feel he is guilty, and would rather clear his name than settle.
is limited to the damage he "caused". He is being sued for the value of two supposedly fake helmets. These are wotth about $15,000 each if real.
Why Eli has not settled for say $50,000 -- voluntarily, without admitting guilt -- as a "goodwiill gesture" is unfathomable. His legal expenses will be far more than that. This all makes no sense.
That indicates to me that he does not feel he is guilty, and would rather clear his name than settle.
In the interest of not having to be called to court during pre-season activities (or worse during pre-season or season), I'd much have preferred Manning to settle and make this go away.
I assume this still will be settled with no admission of liability. The cost of Mara, Manning, and who knows who else getting called to the stand and having to defend the laundry guys who lied to the FBI is pretty decent.
the I conclude that Eli was duped by the Giants training staff. To me, it boils down to whether or not Eli was explicitly told the stuff he was signing for was game used and then if you believe that he took that information at face value. If either of these is false, then he has a problem. If not, it is the training staff that is really at fault, which in turn makes the organization liable.
What I'd like to know is how common this kind of thing is in memorabilia. For all we know, all the big time guys pass off stuff as game worn, either because they don't have the time to track down the real thing or have some sentimental attachment to them.
That doesn't excuse Eli, but counts of fraud make it sound like he was running some sort of ponzi scheme, when in fact it was a lot more benign than that.
Did they suspect the items were fake and supponea the emails?
The guy who instigated this whole thing, Eric Inselberg or something like that, is mad that he was not given credit or something for some of the game used stuff that he contributed to the Giants HOF exhibit in Metlife or something really dumb like that. If you look the guy up, he's kind of a slimeball to begin with, and had charges brought against him by the FBI for fraud involving game worn stuff in the past, prior to this stuff.
There is virtually no chance Manning is held liable for anything unless one if the Skiba brothers makes good on the threat to blow the whole thing up.
On its surface, the email about passing as game used can be believably defended to mean, "meet the criteria of game used." Unless there is other evidence Manning might be dropped from the suit day one. He's only named because it shows evidence of a pattern. The alleged fraud is around Skiba and the team.
Manning might testify this week which would be fantastic.
The dealer is shady, but let's not forget the team absolutely did official business with this guy. He had the right to expect the merchandise was genuine.
What's beyond me is that the equipment guys have a job after all of this. The suspicious part of me thinks they have plenty of dirt on this topic.
Skiba inherited the job from his father. The family has a relationship with the org going way way back. They are loyal to a fault. Or maybe he really did nothing wrong...
Dumping them would kind of go against their strategy
I don't know the facts, but if you take the worst case scenario in which Eli was a knowing participant in a fraud, here's what he was possibly thinking:
"I'm a big star who makes $20M/year and millions more in endorsements and perks and here is this equipment manager (who lives a middle class existence and services me with the quality equipment I require) coming to me and asking for some of game worn/used stuff so that he can make an extra buck and then he tells me that it doesn't even have to be the actual stuff if it has sentimental value to me. All I need to do is sign off on it. It's a victimless crime, really. The consumer gets the same satisfaction/joy of owning pretend jerseys/helmets/etc that he would get from the real stuff, Skiba makes some extra money to support his family, and I get to keep the stuff that has sentimental value to me. Everybody is a winner."
That sounds very out of character for Eli, who seems much more polished in this type of thing. Plus, that isn't a victimless crime. The owner may feel happy while ignorant of the fraud, but they still spend much more money for an item having been designated as game worn.
2017 Washington Post story giving all the evidence
The Skiba bros lied (abetted by Heller the Giants' lawyer) to the FBI and a grand jury about Inselberg buying stuff from them. Inselberg proved it and was immediately set free and not prosecuted. Wash Post story Eli 2017 - ( New Window )
someone in the NYG org should fall on the sword so that Eli does not get suspended. Saying they did not hand Eli a Jersey or Helmet that was actually worn in a game.
On a side note, why wouldn't you? Either way, the Helmet and the Jersey would be official game equipment that cost the same as game worn. Why even fuck around with it? Is it easier to just sign something new because you dont have to clean it?
Eli's lawyers tried and failed in court to get a summary judgment against these 3 counts. Judge DeLuca said there was sufficient evidence to warrant a trial.
Not exactly. To win a summary judgment motion, the party seeking summary judgment must convince the court the even if you assume the most favorable view of the evidence in the opposing party's favor, the opposing party has no chance to win at trial.
So, if you read the email as Eli trying to get away with passing off goods as game worn that were not, then there is no chance to win a motion. It does not mean that the plaintiffs are right or wrong. It does not mean that Eli is right or wrong.
It only means that the Judge felt that there was more than one way to interpret the evidence and that means that a jury has to be the entity to decide the case.
As a point of reference, I am a lawyer who focuses on litigation. So, I do know exactly what I am talking about here.
"game used" be found? Think about it, there is no definition of the words in question that can be said to govern. Eli's e-mail asks, if reasonably interpreted, that the equipment guy decide if he has items fitting the term game used, as he understands it? The racketeering notion has disappeared. Was Eli fraudulent in asking and accepting the answer, seems unlikely, did he negligently misrepresent? The judgment says there are questions of fact to be settled at trial.
trial, allegations that if proven to be true, backed up by a fraudulent or negligent state of mind, could constitute a civil, not, a criminal cause of action, addressable by civil damages adequate to compensate for proven losses suffered.
A defendant's motion for Summary Judgment tests the legal sufficiency of plaintiff's case. It requires the defendant's attorney to make the following presentation to the Court:
Conceding, for the purposes of this motion, all of plaintiff's factual allegations to be stipulated as true, defendant is entitled to have Count Number [nth] dismissed because it is not legally sustainable for the following reasons...
In other words, in order to obtain summary judgment, the defendant must establish that the plaintiff cannot prevail as a matter of law even if all the facts were stipulated.
There is only one reason for a trial - because the parties disagree about the facts. Disagreements of law are not resolved by trials. They are resolved by motions. If the parties agree on the facts, there cannot be a trial because there is nothing for the jury (or fact finder) to resolve.
A motion for Summary Judgment that is denied by the Court is simply a statement by the Court that there is a factual dispute [i.e. a specific factual contention, that controls the legal outcome, which has admissible evidence both for and against], that must be resolved by the jury/fact finder.
Judges can never be reversed for denying Summary Judgment because a denial simply results in a jury trial and that can never be wrong. On the other hand, the most frequent cause of reversals by the Appellate Division are for Judges wrongfully granting motions for Summary Judgment. So, there is a built in predisposition for judges to deny a motion for summary judgment as the "safe" thing to do.
See page 36 of the s.g. for the judge's statement which agrees with your view.
Yea, well, I couldn't read it. A ridiculous opinion (57 freaking pages - that's longer than most NJ Supreme Court opinions). It's pretty obvious the Judge wrote this while being very much aware of the media attention... I tried to read it but couldn't get past the first 2-3 pages.
RE: Dumping them would kind of go against their strategy
Except they were punished by the team with a salary freeze. This was the impetus for the exchange between the brothers where the idea of "telling the world," the full story came.
The Giants point-of-fact acknowledged some of this. There's a good chance the team is held liable. An employee of the team sold fraudulent items, at which some point the owner knew.
As for the length, he had 17 counts to describe the story and testimony of, and as many as 5 people involved per count which he had to decide on separately.
As for the length, he had 17 counts to describe the story and testimony of, and as many as 5 people involved per count which he had to decide on separately.
He made about 30 decisions. Not easy.
I understand. I thought I'd be interested and I started to read it... maybe it was partly because I was hoping to learn something about the case itself (I have never read anything but headlines... I know literally nothing about the details)... but I quickly saw it was going to be a tough slog through... he's required to make a record of the basis for his ruling as to each count, so as you say, he had no choice ... anyway, I couldn't read it ... I tried to scan it quickly to see if I could find the "meat" but gave up.
#7) Consumer fraud p. 47
#6) Common fraud p. 49
#17) Negligent misrepresentation p.56
Eli's problem is that he signed a lot of game stuff as genuine -- under contract.
This sounds like a serious --not frivolous-- trial.
He should settle it and get on with life.
Unfortunately the other defendants -- Giants and the memorabilia contractor -- are in the same trial, complicating matters.
won two summary judgements to dismiss cases vs him of Consumer fraud and Common Fraud.
While Eli is being tried on these same charges.
The key difference is that it is not against the fraud laws to create fake used equipment. It is against the law to sell or assist in selling it.
Skiba was accused of the wrong things. He arguably should have been accused of assisting Eli in breaking the fraud laws. But he wasn't. That is another story.
That's one risk. As others have observed, if he were to lose the suit, he'd probably be suspended, and that may be the bigger risk. Judging by the suspension that Brady got, we would probably get an extended look at Davis Webb.
"I'm a big star who makes $20M/year and millions more in endorsements and perks and here is this equipment manager (who lives a middle class existence and services me with the quality equipment I require) coming to me and asking for some of game worn/used stuff so that he can make an extra buck and then he tells me that it doesn't even have to be the actual stuff if it has sentimental value to me. All I need to do is sign off on it. It's a victimless crime, really. The consumer gets the same satisfaction/joy of owning pretend jerseys/helmets/etc that he would get from the real stuff, Skiba makes some extra money to support his family, and I get to keep the stuff that has sentimental value to me. Everybody is a winner."
You can't go to jail from a civil suit.
The entire memorabilia industry is a fraud.
Skiba provided the equipment but did not profit from that since he was not paid be Eli for it.-- as far as we know from testimony.
Eli and his company both warranted the equipment provided was genuine gameworn -- Eli wrote "gameworn" on the equipment.
Why Eli has not settled for say $50,000 -- voluntarily, without admitting guilt -- as a "goodwiill gesture" is unfathomable. His legal expenses will be far more than that. This all makes no sense.
Why Eli has not settled for say $50,000 -- voluntarily, without admitting guilt -- as a "goodwiill gesture" is unfathomable. His legal expenses will be far more than that. This all makes no sense.
That indicates to me that he does not feel he is guilty, and would rather clear his name than settle.
Quote:
is limited to the damage he "caused". He is being sued for the value of two supposedly fake helmets. These are wotth about $15,000 each if real.
Why Eli has not settled for say $50,000 -- voluntarily, without admitting guilt -- as a "goodwiill gesture" is unfathomable. His legal expenses will be far more than that. This all makes no sense.
That indicates to me that he does not feel he is guilty, and would rather clear his name than settle.
In the interest of not having to be called to court during pre-season activities (or worse during pre-season or season), I'd much have preferred Manning to settle and make this go away.
I assume this still will be settled with no admission of liability. The cost of Mara, Manning, and who knows who else getting called to the stand and having to defend the laundry guys who lied to the FBI is pretty decent.
That doesn't excuse Eli, but counts of fraud make it sound like he was running some sort of ponzi scheme, when in fact it was a lot more benign than that.
I believe there was a news story of Eli saying he kept a game used helmet that the collector thought he already owned.
The guy who instigated this whole thing, Eric Inselberg or something like that, is mad that he was not given credit or something for some of the game used stuff that he contributed to the Giants HOF exhibit in Metlife or something really dumb like that. If you look the guy up, he's kind of a slimeball to begin with, and had charges brought against him by the FBI for fraud involving game worn stuff in the past, prior to this stuff.
On its surface, the email about passing as game used can be believably defended to mean, "meet the criteria of game used." Unless there is other evidence Manning might be dropped from the suit day one. He's only named because it shows evidence of a pattern. The alleged fraud is around Skiba and the team.
Manning might testify this week which would be fantastic.
The dealer is shady, but let's not forget the team absolutely did official business with this guy. He had the right to expect the merchandise was genuine.
What's beyond me is that the equipment guys have a job after all of this. The suspicious part of me thinks they have plenty of dirt on this topic.
Quote:
is so un-Eli like. Wonder what he was thinking.
I don't know the facts, but if you take the worst case scenario in which Eli was a knowing participant in a fraud, here's what he was possibly thinking:
"I'm a big star who makes $20M/year and millions more in endorsements and perks and here is this equipment manager (who lives a middle class existence and services me with the quality equipment I require) coming to me and asking for some of game worn/used stuff so that he can make an extra buck and then he tells me that it doesn't even have to be the actual stuff if it has sentimental value to me. All I need to do is sign off on it. It's a victimless crime, really. The consumer gets the same satisfaction/joy of owning pretend jerseys/helmets/etc that he would get from the real stuff, Skiba makes some extra money to support his family, and I get to keep the stuff that has sentimental value to me. Everybody is a winner."
The Skiba bros lied (abetted by Heller the Giants' lawyer) to the FBI and a grand jury about Inselberg buying stuff from them. Inselberg proved it and was immediately set free and not prosecuted.
Wash Post story Eli 2017 - ( New Window )
On a side note, why wouldn't you? Either way, the Helmet and the Jersey would be official game equipment that cost the same as game worn. Why even fuck around with it? Is it easier to just sign something new because you dont have to clean it?
Not exactly. To win a summary judgment motion, the party seeking summary judgment must convince the court the even if you assume the most favorable view of the evidence in the opposing party's favor, the opposing party has no chance to win at trial.
So, if you read the email as Eli trying to get away with passing off goods as game worn that were not, then there is no chance to win a motion. It does not mean that the plaintiffs are right or wrong. It does not mean that Eli is right or wrong.
It only means that the Judge felt that there was more than one way to interpret the evidence and that means that a jury has to be the entity to decide the case.
As a point of reference, I am a lawyer who focuses on litigation. So, I do know exactly what I am talking about here.
Conceding, for the purposes of this motion, all of plaintiff's factual allegations to be stipulated as true, defendant is entitled to have Count Number [nth] dismissed because it is not legally sustainable for the following reasons...
In other words, in order to obtain summary judgment, the defendant must establish that the plaintiff cannot prevail as a matter of law even if all the facts were stipulated.
There is only one reason for a trial - because the parties disagree about the facts. Disagreements of law are not resolved by trials. They are resolved by motions. If the parties agree on the facts, there cannot be a trial because there is nothing for the jury (or fact finder) to resolve.
A motion for Summary Judgment that is denied by the Court is simply a statement by the Court that there is a factual dispute [i.e. a specific factual contention, that controls the legal outcome, which has admissible evidence both for and against], that must be resolved by the jury/fact finder.
Judges can never be reversed for denying Summary Judgment because a denial simply results in a jury trial and that can never be wrong. On the other hand, the most frequent cause of reversals by the Appellate Division are for Judges wrongfully granting motions for Summary Judgment. So, there is a built in predisposition for judges to deny a motion for summary judgment as the "safe" thing to do.
Yea, well, I couldn't read it. A ridiculous opinion (57 freaking pages - that's longer than most NJ Supreme Court opinions). It's pretty obvious the Judge wrote this while being very much aware of the media attention... I tried to read it but couldn't get past the first 2-3 pages.
Except they were punished by the team with a salary freeze. This was the impetus for the exchange between the brothers where the idea of "telling the world," the full story came.
The Giants point-of-fact acknowledged some of this. There's a good chance the team is held liable. An employee of the team sold fraudulent items, at which some point the owner knew.
As for the length, he had 17 counts to describe the story and testimony of, and as many as 5 people involved per count which he had to decide on separately.
He made about 30 decisions. Not easy.
As for the length, he had 17 counts to describe the story and testimony of, and as many as 5 people involved per count which he had to decide on separately.
He made about 30 decisions. Not easy.
I understand. I thought I'd be interested and I started to read it... maybe it was partly because I was hoping to learn something about the case itself (I have never read anything but headlines... I know literally nothing about the details)... but I quickly saw it was going to be a tough slog through... he's required to make a record of the basis for his ruling as to each count, so as you say, he had no choice ... anyway, I couldn't read it ... I tried to scan it quickly to see if I could find the "meat" but gave up.