During the 1990's, the FBI identified a major problem threatening the entire sports and celebrity memorabilia market. The Chicago Division of the FBI initiated a sports memorabilia fraud investigation targeting a group of individuals who forged, fraudulently authenticated, and distributed Chicago athletes' autographed memorabilia, (including that of Michael Jordan). To date, this case has resulted in the conviction of fourteen individuals in five states (Illinois, California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Minnesota) involved with forging and distributing forged memorabilia. Information developed by the Chicago FBI's "Foul Ball" investigation suggested that the problem might be national in scope.

While it is impossible to definitely estimate the percentage of forged memorabilia, most industry experts concede that over half of the autographed memorabilia is forged. In fact, some cooperating subjects and memorabilia experts believe that up to ninety percent of the memorabilia on the market is forged. Industry experts estimate that the autographed memorabilia market in the United States is approximately $1 billion per year. Using these estimates, forged memorabilia comprises between $500,000,000 and $900,000,000 of the market.

In 1997, the FBI in San Diego utilized the information from Operation Foul Ball and by the Upper Deck Company to institute an undercover operation designed to infiltrate the nationwide memorabilia fraud network.

The FBI (and the United States Attorney's Office) invited the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, to participate in this investigation in order to take advantage of their ability to document money laundering and tax violations, as well as their expertise in tracing proceeds to identify unreported income.