[meteorite-list] SENTENCE IN MOON ROCK SCAM

From: meteorites_at_space.com <meteorites_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:44:39 2004
Message-ID: <20010314144038.1233.cpmta_at_c000.snv.cp.net>

On Wed, 14 March 2001, "Peter Scherff" wrote:
VERY interesting-- This should serve as a warning to those speck dealers. What they sell had better be what they say that it is-- or face some serious charges and legal ramifications. This is not only for reputed Apollo samples, but some of the high priced specks that have recently been touted and sold at ebay and other places. As I said, and will continue to say, I would rather KNOW that the piece I am buying is what the seller says it is, than to BELIEVE or have the FAITH that it is what the seller says it is-- especially with regards to the lunars and or martian meteorites.
Steve Schoner, AMS.
> Hi,
>
> I just saw this on MSNBC:
>
> SENTENCE IN MOON ROCK SCAM
> A Connecticut man who sold rocks that he claimed were gathered from
> the moon's surface during the historic 1969 Apollo 11 lunar landing was
> sentenced Monday to 21 months in federal prison.
> U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver in Phoenix sentenced Richard Keith
> Mountain, of New Milford, Conn., after he pleaded guilty last October to six
> counts of mail and wire fraud for selling the "moon rocks" in Vancouver,
> British Columbia.
> Mountain, 53, using an alias, owned and operated several businesses
> in Arizona and California that sold artwork and collectibles dealing with
> space exploration. He earned almost $100,000 selling what he claimed were
> lunar soil samples collected by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
> The Lunar Receiving Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center in Houston
> analyzed the granules sold by Mountain and determined they were not from the
> moon.
> As part of his sentence, Mountain has to repay the victims for their
> purchases.
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Peter Scherff
>
>
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Received on Wed 14 Mar 2001 09:40:38 AM PST