RivCo man who sold Stan Lee memorabilia to plead guilty to tax fraud

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KESQ) - A Riverside County man has agreed to plead guilty to filing false income tax returns after selling Stan Lee-signed memorabilia and receiving more than $1.2 million in proceeds which he never reported to the IRS, officials announced today.

Mac Martin Anderson, 59, of Corona will enter a plea in downtown Los Angeles at a later date to two counts of willfully subscribing to a false tax return, a felony carrying a possible sentence of up to three years in prison for each charge, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

According to his plea agreement, from 2015 to 2018, Anderson had a personal relationship with the late Marvel Comics publisher, and sold Marvel-related items bearing Lee's autograph to various dealers, brokers and fans at comic conventions.  

In exchange for selling these items, Anderson received payments from buyers, typically in the form of cash or checks. These payments were considered regular income by the IRS and should have been reported on Anderson's income tax return each year that he received money, prosecutors said.

For tax years 2015 through 2018, income from the memorabilia totaled $289,460, $452,269, $414,166, and $80,590, respectively. In total, Anderson admitted to profiting $1.23 million in reportable income from the memorabilia sales which resulted in him owing the IRS approximately $482,833, according to the plea agreement.  

As part of his plea deal, Anderson agreed to pay restitution to the IRS of $482,833.

Lee -- the man behind Marvel superheroes such as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man and Black Panther -- died Nov. 12, 2018, at age 95.