[meteorite-list] SPACE ROCK SCAM

From: Robert Verish <bolidechaser_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:44:39 2004
Message-ID: <20010314175317.87610.qmail_at_web10412.mail.yahoo.com>

http://www.msnbc.com/news/463318.asp
(scroll halfway down the page)

SENTENCE IN MOON ROCK SCAM
MSNBC
March 12, 2001

       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.

=====================================================

Moon rock scam or "Arizona Meteorite??", what's the
difference, legally speaking that is?
Hopefully "Romansells" will read this and take heed.



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Received on Wed 14 Mar 2001 12:53:17 PM PST