IMO, Mark is flat out lying to you.
The General Manager of the FQ's had no clue the chips had been made until I told him. I called him and ask him to meet me in the Horseshoe coffee shop. This is well after the chips had been sold to the dealers. Steve Zacchi was willing to talk to the GM and tell him how he was offered the chips and at what price. In fact Steve called him and left his phone number with the secretary.
I guess the GM decided not to do much about it but slap Mark's wrist as he never called Steve back.
Dealer 1 in your post was instructed by Mark to say he got the 60 sets from a BJ table. He admitted to me that was a lie. There were never any of them on a BJ table. He got them direct from Marc.
We all know Skip bought some from Mark as he is still selling them today.

Several dealers refused to buy them from Marc because they knew it was wrong and there was going to be a stink about them. Yes, ethics are still alive and well in some of us.

A casino employee bought chips, got all of them and sold them at a profit. That is a direct violation of the regs concerning NV chips.
I thought long and hard about taking it to gaming and decided against it because of my 20 year friendship with the FQ's GM.

It is a sad day when a casino employee will use his trusted position to gouge the collectors.

The chips were never in play, they were made to screw YOU.
Anyone that buys them is fostering a fraud on our hobby.