The Colorado Attorney General’s Office says a Montrose man tried to sell a phony lunar meteorite on eBay for at least $512,000, promised 80 percent tax deduction to would-be buyers and threatened experts in the field who said his finds weren’t from space.

State prosecutors are accusing Steven Curry, his business, Uncompahgre Meteorites, and his charity, The Osirius Foundation, of deceptive trade practices. They are asking a state judge to bar Curry from advertising or selling the material as meteorites.

Chemical testing showed some of the rocks were man-made carbon steel, according to the Attorney General’s office.

“Respondent Curry has been told, on numerous occasions by learned authorities, that the specimens in his possession are not meteorites,” the office stated in its April 18 court filing.

Curry said in a telephone interview this afternoon he will be exonerated, then he plans to sue his accusers, including those trying to debunk his finds. He also said he would sue eBay for $12 billion, because the online auction site took down the lunar meteorite he had offered for $512,000.

“I will fight this thing all the way,” Curry said. “There is no give up in me.”

The Attorney General’s Office filed a petition in Denver District Court last week stating Curry had refused to cooperate with their investigation, including three subpoenas.

Prosecutors said Curry threatened Matt Benjamin, head of education programs at the Fiske Planetarium and Science Center at the University of Colorado, in 2010 and Bruce Geller, curator of the Colorado School of Mines Museum, in 2011, after they told him his rocks weren’t meteorites. He had taken the alleged meteorites to them for verification.

Curry today continued to challenge their expertise and honesty, as well as the integrity of others. He accuses his academic accusers of sham science and a conspiracy to keep quiet how common it is to find meteorites.

“I will not quit until I have John Suthers’ job,” he said, referring to the state attorney general.

Curry said he stopped cooperating with the state investigation when it seemed clear that prosecutors had sided with his accusers and deprived him of due process of law.

Curry, 59, said he has been in the meteorite business for three years and has sold only two meteorites for a total of about $600, including one to Blaine Reed, another meteorite dealer, who first contacted authorities in November .

He also donated five specimens to the Montrose County Historical Society, placing their value at nearly $59 million.

Curry said he is self-taught in the meteorite field and uses X-ray technology and other research to verify the finds he has made on the Western Slope and other locations. He received a fine arts degree from Metro State University of Denver in 1986.

Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com