Latest news with #federal charges
New York Times
06-08-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Former Miami Heat employee charged for stealing $3.7 million LeBron jersey, hundreds of other items
Former Miami Heat security officer Marcos Thomas Perez faced federal charges of transporting and transferring stolen goods in interstate commerce on Tuesday, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida. The 62-year-old retired member of the Miami Police Department is accused of stealing hundreds of items from the team, including LeBron James' jersey from Game 7 of the 2013 NBA Finals, which went on to sell for nearly $3.7 million in a 2023 Sotheby's auction. Advertisement Perez was employed by the Heat from 2016-2021 and later by the NBA from 2022-2025, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. 'During his tenure, Perez worked on the game-day security detail at the Kaseya Center, where he was among a limited number of trusted individuals with access to a secured equipment room,' the release says. 'This equipment room stored hundreds of game-worn jerseys and other memorabilia that the organization intended to display in a future Miami Heat museum.' Perez allegedly stole more than 400 game-used jerseys and other items from the equipment room, selling them on multiple online marketplaces. Law enforcement executed a search warrant at Perez's home in April and seized almost 300 items that the Heat confirmed had been stolen from their arena. 'Over a three-year period, Perez sold over 100 stolen items for approximately $2 million and shipped them across state lines, often for prices well below their market value,' the press release says, including the James Game 7 jersey for about $100,000. That same jersey went on to sell for $3.68 million in a highly publicized Sotheby's auction in January 2023. At the time, it was the third most ever paid for a game-used jersey behind Michael Jordan's 1998 NBA Finals Game 1 'Last Dance' jersey ($10.091 million) and Diego Maradona's 1986 World Cup 'Hand of God' jersey ($9.28 million). 'Sotheby's is fully cooperating with law enforcement and, out of respect for the ongoing investigation, will not comment further at this time,' the auction said on Tuesday. The charges are reminiscent of those faced by former Augusta National employee Richard Brendan Globensky, who pled guilty to stealing items worth an estimated $5.3 million from the country club, including Arnold Palmer's green jacket, which was intercepted in an FBI sting operation in 2022. Globensky received a 12-month prison sentence in March. (Photo of LeBron James' 2013 NBA Finals Game 7 jersey displayed by Sotheby's in 2023: ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
Malay Mail
19-07-2025
- Politics
- Malay Mail
The Epstein saga: Key moments from sex trafficking charges to Trump's legal battle
NEW YORK, July 20 — Jeffrey Epstein, the abuser at the centre of a conspiracy theory creating political headwinds for President Donald Trump, was facing federal charges of sex trafficking underage girls when he was found dead in his New York prison cell. Six years later, the death of the wealthy and well-connected financier continues to reverberate, leaving major questions unanswered. Here is a breakdown of the legal cases and recent developments surrounding Epstein: Florida case Epstein's first serious trouble with the law came in 2006 after the parents of a 14-year-old told police he had molested their daughter at his Florida estate. Epstein avoided federal charges — which could have seen him face life in prison — through a controversial plea deal with prosecutors. In June 2008, he pleaded guilty to state felony charges of procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution and solicitation of prostitution. He was jailed for just under 13 months and required to register as a sex offender. New York sex trafficking A federal grand jury in New York charged Epstein on July 2, 2019 with two felony counts: conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minor girls and sex trafficking of minor girls. He was arrested four days later but was found dead in his prison cell on August 10, before the case came to trial. His death was ruled a suicide. The grand jury indictment accused Epstein of having 'sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls,' some as young as 14, at his Manhattan mansion and Palm Beach estate. Epstein and employees and associates recruited girls 'to engage in sex acts with him, after which he would give the victims hundreds of dollars in cash,' it said. Epstein also paid his victims to provide him with other girls, the indictment said, creating a 'vast network of underage victims for him to sexually exploit.' The indictment did not name the employees or associates who recruited girls for Epstein. But British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's one-time girlfriend and assistant, was convicted in 2021 in New York with sex trafficking of minors on his behalf. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence. The memo Trump's conspiracy-minded supporters have been obsessed with the Epstein case for years and Trump, during his latest presidential campaign, said he would 'probably' release what have come to be known as the 'Epstein files.' They were outraged when the Justice Department and FBI announced on July 7 that Epstein had indeed committed suicide, did not blackmail any prominent figures and did not keep a 'client list.' The 'exhaustive review' also did not reveal any illegal wrongdoing by 'third-parties,' the joint memo said, adding that there would be no further disclosure of information about the case. The memo sparked a fierce backlash from Trump's 'Make America Great Again' movement — which has long held as an article of faith that 'deep state' elites were protecting powerful associates in the Democratic Party and Hollywood. Right-wing supporters typically did not include former Epstein friend Trump in their conspiracy theories. Trump and Epstein The 79-year-old Trump, who was friends with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s, has been seeking — unsuccessfully so far — to tamp down the uproar caused by the FBI memo putting a lid on the case. No evidence has emerged of any wrongdoing by Trump, but The Wall Street Journal published details yesterday of a raunchy letter he purportedly sent Epstein in 2003 to mark his 50th birthday. The president yesterday sued Dow Jones, News Corp, two Wall Street Journal reporters and the newspaper's owner Rupert Murdoch, for libel and slander in relation to the article. He is seeking at least US$10 billion in damages in a defamation lawsuit filed in federal court in Miami. Trump also ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the release of the grand jury testimony in Epstein's New York case. In a filing in New York, Bondi cited 'extensive public interest' for the unusual request to release what is typically secret testimony. — AFP
