Very possibly most likely true.
It's definitely true. By the time articles were being written, WotC's statement was that this was an investigation into "embargoed product". And, from the beginning, Cannon said that the cards were purchased. The only people in this whole debacle who claimed that the cards were stolen were the Pinkerton private detectives, and I'll get back to that.
I'd disagree. He purchased a different set of card boxes and happened to be given these by mistake.
Sure. Cannon claims he purchased cards and got the wrong ones by mistake. My point here is that nobody was claiming the cards were stolen, so why should he be expected to disprove a claim that nobody was making?
Excellent point. I'd even go as far as to say that them giving Cannon cards to replace the ones he gave up shows their intent was not to intimidate him. Kind of weird to have them say, "You're going to jail, thief! Here's some cards to replace the ones you stole. Be afraid!"
Good cop/bad cop.
According to Cannon, the Pinkerton private detectives showed up unannounced. They got aggressive with his wife. They claimed that the cards were stolen, and that they could bring in law enforcement and he could face jail time and a lawsuit. Then they had him call a WotC representative in their presence. The WotC representative was friendly and conciliatory, and worked out a deal with him. Cannon would hand over the cards and take down his videos, and WotC would send him replacement cards and the guys who threatened him with jail and made his wife cry would go away. This could be framed as Cannon agreeing to cooperate with the investigation, but his cooperation was secured through psychological pressure and threats that I don't think WotC intended to (or even could) actually follow through with.
Like I said in a previous post, private detective agencies have no real power. They can't compel anyone to cooperate with them, so they use dirty tricks. There was no way that the Pinkerton private detectives could have gotten the cards from Cannon without his consent. If they'd done nothing but intimidate him, he might have gotten angry and told them to get off his property, or wised up and said that he would need to call a lawyer, or something along those lines. What they needed to do to secure his consent was get him scared, not give him time to think, and then bring in the good cop to offer a way out. The private detectives had him call the good cop in front of them so that they could apply more pressure if the negotiation went south.
Now, it's possible that Cannon is lying, but the whole thing is such a textbook example of a standard technique that it rings true.
I mean, I think the fact that Cannon had cards that should not have been given to him is proof something was done wrong. Not suggesting it was wrong doing in the criminal sense, but I would suggest it was something that was done incorrectly/wrong by the person who sold to Cannon. Mistakes are made, but it's a bit of a stretch to expect anyone outside of Cannon and his seller to know what actually happened. I'd guess the seller probably didn't even realize it happened unless Cannon told him later (or he has read one of the articles or seen one of the videos). That guy is going to be upset if WoTC cuts him off because of Cannon's video shenanigans.
To be clear, I meant that they should be required to show wrongdoing on Cannon's part. Whoever supplied the cards to Cannon presumably broke the terms of their agreement with WotC, intentionally or unintentionally.
