A Concord sports memorabilia dealer pleaded guilty Monday to wire fraud after he was caught selling fake sports collectibles, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Daniel Damato, 42, was charged with one count of wire fraud in October and admitted to trying to obstruct the FBI's investigation into him, prosecutors said.

Between 2022 and 2024, Damato doctored and invented false provenance to valuable items in order to make them look like authentic sports collectibles, the DOJ said. He would then inflate the prices and sell them to people.

Damato admitted to selling a baseball bat in 2023 for $100,000 that he said was used by Willie Mays in the 1954 World Series; in reality, the bat was a factory error and an inch shorter than the one actually used by Mays. Once the buyer sent Damato the h

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