NEW YORK (Reuters) - Just as his brother did a month ago, an Atlanta man who was caught trying to sell pieces of a fake moon rock that he claimed had been given to his father by U.S. space pioneer John Glenn pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Ronald Trochelmann was charged along with his brother Brian Trochelmann last year in U.S. District Court in Manhattan in a scheme to sell the phony moon rock for millions of dollars. Brian Trochelmann pleaded guilty to the same charge on Sept. 23.
The brothers are set to be sentenced early next year. They face possible maximum prison terms of five years each.
The brothers claimed that their father had invented a space-food packaging process that was used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration during the Apollo moon missions of the 1960s.
The Trochelmanns alleged that the rock had been brought from the moon by Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean and given to Glenn. They claimed Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth and later a U.S. senator, had given the rock to their father in recognition of his supposed invention.
Prosecutors said Trochelmann's father never invented any food packaging process used by NASA and never even met Glenn, let alone received a moon rock from him.
The brothers had negotiated a consignment agreement with Phillips Son & Neale, a Manhattan auction house, to sell the rock in December 1995. However, before the auction took place, a Phillips representative told the brothers there was insufficient authentication that the rock had come from the moon.
The rock was confiscated by FBI agents in December 1995 prior to the scheduled auction.
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