NYC man says his pal is mastermind behind Magic: The Gathering trading card theft

There’s no magic left between these two.A Manhattan man accused of stealing thousands of dollars worth of Magic: The Gathering and other trading cards in Indianapolis claims his former best buddy was the brains behind the heist but fingered him instead.Thomas Dunbar avoided jail time by pleading guilty in May 2025 to theft, and was required to pay $27,000 in restitution after he and Andrew Giaume were caught on camera taking $300,000 worth of gaming and trading cards from an August 2023 convention.But Giaume insists in a new Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit that he thought Dunbar had legitimately bought the cards at the annual Gen Con gathering.The two New Yorkers, both 42, had been friends since middle school, and for the past eight years went to the Indianapolis convention — where fans buy and sell wildly popular and collectible cards such as Pokémon, and Magic: The Gathering, Giaume said in court papers.It wasn’t until Dunbar’s image was splashed online in articles about the theft while the two were still in Indianapolis that Giaume knew something was up, he claimed in the $10 million lawsuit against his ex-pal.When he confronted Dunbar, Giuame claimed in legal papers that his friend “went pale,” insisting the articles must have been a mistake, and “began packing his bags in a frenzy” before running off to catch a flight home.So Giuame was shocked when Dunbar was accused of stealing — and devastated when he realized “long afterwards” that Dunbar implicated him to authorities.“Dunbar knew that he alone could not afford to make full restitution to the victims and knew he needed Giaume’s financial support,” Giaume claimed in court papers.He’s already spent $100,000 in legal fees and lost a $500,000 investment in a new bar he planned to open in NYC, Giuame said in the defamation lawsuit against Dunbar.“While Giaume would prefer to fight and prove his innocence at trial, he lacks the financial means to do so,” he said in court papers,...