Parties reach settlement in Manning, Giants memorabilia fraud lawsuit
The Giants announced Monday that they and quarterback Eli Manning had reached a confidential settlement with three men who were suing them over claims of memorabilia fraud. Earlier in the day, a trial in the lawsuit had been set to begin with jury selection at a New Jersey courthouse, but the proceedings were delayed because of a death in the family of one of the attorneys.
Now the trial, which was expected to take approximately four weeks, will be averted, keeping Manning from possibly having to take the stand to testify about his alleged role in a scheme to falsely depict helmets and other pieces of Giants equipment as game-worn. Team co-owner John Mara had also been placed on the list of potential witnesses.
The Giants portrayed the plaintiffs as having themselves sold fake memorabilia. The lawsuit was originally filed in 2014 by Eric Inselberg, a major collector and dealer of items related to the team who was indicted three years earlier on federal charges of selling counterfeit jerseys. He got those charges dropped after pointing to inconsistencies in testimony by Giants equipment managers, and eventually his lawsuit was joined by two other collectors, Michael Jakab and Sean Godown.
The lawsuit included an accusation that two helmets purchased by the plaintiffs, including one purportedly worn by Manning in the 2008 Super Bowl which wound up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, were not game-worn, as claimed by Giants equipment managers. The veteran quarterback, a twotime Super Bowl MVP, was accused of directing his team’s staffers to create the bogus items because he preferred to hang on to the authentic mementos of his career.