Legal claims against sports memorabilia and photograph dealer John Rogers now exceed $40 million. The latest to file suit against the Arkansas man is a second former business partner who claims Rogers lured him into investing in bogus arrangements to flip high-end sports cards, memorabilia and photo archives that were never completed.
According to the lawsuit filed this week in Little Rock, William “Mac” Hogan says he met Rogers through a mutual friend in 2011 and began investing in a string of deals to purchase six and seven-figure collections. The suit says Rogers claimed he had plans in place to re-sell the sports collections to trading card companies Topps and Upper Deck and others for hefty profits. Both would then profit from the proceeds.
However, Hogan’s $13.2 million suit claims he was the victim of a Ponzi-style scheme that unraveled when FBI agents raided Rogers’ home and business early in 2014. Thus far, no criminal charges have been filed against Rogers, but the FBI has been investigating Rogers’ business dealings.
Another former Rogers business partner, John Conner, Jr., filed suit earlier this week in an attempt to recover what he says is $9.6 million in unpaid money. Hogan and Conner are now in line with others who allege fraud by Rogers in various business dealings.
Hogan’s suit includes examples of purchase agreements that never came to fruition including deals to buy the Delbert Mickel uniform collection that was eventually sold by SCP Auctions last year, rare vintage baseball cards from private parties and the archives of long-time photographer Don Wingfield. Hogan was also part of what Rogers claimed was a done deal to buy the archives of the Daily Oklahoman newspaper.
Hogan claims Rogers used post-dated checks to repay part of his investment in installments but later learned many of the deals Rogers had cooked up between May of 2011 and January of last year never happened.
Two banks have filed complaints saying Rogers used money they loaned him for purposes other than buying equipment for his photo digitizing business as he had promised.
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