Corona man who dodged taxes on $1.2 million, much from Stan Lee-signed memorabilia, gets 1 year in prison and a bill

A 59-year-old Corona man who filed income tax returns without declaring hundreds of thousands of dollars that he had pocketed from selling memorabilia signed by Stan Lee — a major figure in the world of super heroes — was sentenced on Thursday, June 26, to a year in federal prison.

Mac Martin Anderson pleaded guilty in March to two counts of willfully subscribing to a false tax return under a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

During a hearing at U.S. District Court in downtown Riverside on Thursday, Judge Kenly Kiya Kato sentenced Anderson to the one-year term and ordered him to pay $482,833 in restitution to the government.

Prosecutors said the defendant netted about $1.2 million from his undeclared operation.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, 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.

Anderson received payments from buyers, typically in cash or in checks.

Prosecutors said that from the $1.2 million in profit, Anderson owed the IRS $482,833 — the amount the court directed him to pay.

Lee — a major figure behind fictional super heroes Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man and Black Panther — died on Nov. 12, 2018, at 95.