Corona man to plead guilty to tax fraud for falsely reporting income for over $1.2 million in Stan Lee memorabilia sales

A Corona man has agrees plead guilty to filing multiple false tax returns after selling more than $1.2 million worth of signed memorabilia from famed comic book illustrator and creator Stan Lee, but failing to report that income to the IRS, according to officials. 

Mac Martin Anderson, 59, will plead guilty in downtown Los Angeles at a later date on two counts of willfully subscribing to a false tax return, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The felony charges each comes with a possible sentence of up to three years in prison. 

According to the plea agreement, Anderson had a persona relationship with Lee, who helped build Marvel Comics into the massive entity that it is today, and sold Marvel-related items that had his autograph on them. Sales were made to various dealers, brokers and fans at comic conventions, the agreement said. 

Anderson would typically receive payments in the form of cash or check from buyers, which the IRS considered regular income and something that should have been reported on his income tax return every year that he received money, prosecutors said. 

They say that during tax years 2015 through 2018, the income he generated from sold memorabilia equaled $289,460, $414,166 and $80,590, or $1.23 million. He admitted to making that profit in reportable income from the sales, which resulted in him owing the IRS more than $480,000, the plea agreement detailed. He has agreed to pay restitution. 

Lee died in 2018 at 95 years old. He is known as the mastermind behind some of Marvel's most iconic comic book superheroes like Spider-Man, Iron Man, the X-Men and Thor, among many others. He was well known for his cameos in films released under Marvel's cinematic universe.