CORONA, CA — A Riverside County man who admitted he sold more than $1.2 million in signed memorabilia from Marvel Comics publisher Stan Lee, but hid the revenue from the federal government, was sentenced last week to 12 months and one day in prison for his crimes.
Mac Martin Anderson, 59, of Corona was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Kenly Kiya Kato, who also ordered him to pay $482,833 in restitution.
Lee was a comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business that later became Marvel Comics. He was Marvel’s primary creative leader for two decades, expanding the enterprise from a small publishing house to a multimedia corporation that dominated the comics and film industries.
Lee died on Nov. 12, 2018, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 95.
According to his February plea agreement, from 2015 to 2018, Anderson had a personal relationship with Lee. That relationship was explored in film footage shot by Jon Bolerjack. The hundreds of hours of footage allegedly revealed that in his final years, Lee was being manipulated by people around him, including Anderson, who served as a manager for the Marvel icon.
In 2018, The Hollywood Reporter published a report that claimed Lee was a victim of elder abuse. It’s unclear whether those allegations led to federal inquiries into Anderson.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Anderson sold Marvel-related items bearing Lee’s autograph to dealers, brokers and fans, but never included revenues on tax filings.
For tax years 2015 through 2018, income from the sold memorabilia totaled $289,460, $452,269, $414,166, and $80,590, respectively, the DOJ reported.
In total, Anderson admitted to profiting approximately $1,236,485 in reportable income from the memorabilia sales, resulting in an IRS tax liability of approximately $482,833, according to the DOJ.
As part of his plea deal, Anderson agreed to pay the IRS the owed amount.
