Celebrity Autographs And Celebrity Addresses

"The Bayonne Bleeder" has been busted in California on charges of participating in a scam to sell faked autographs, officials said yesterday.

Chuck Wepner, best known for going 15 rounds with Muhammad Ali in a 1975 championship bout, admitted to mailing posters and photographs bearing the faked signatures of Ali and other boxing greats, but told The Jersey Journal yesterday he didn't know they weren't the real thing.

"I didn't know anything was wrong with them," he said yesterday. "I didn't know that they were forgeries, and I still don't."

Wepner told federal prosecutors in San Diego that he mailed a poster and three photographs with faked signatures of Ali and other boxers to a California resident in October 2001, and that he told the buyer that the autographs were authentic.

However, authorities said the signatures were scrawled not by Ali but by John Olson, Wepner's business partner in a memorabilia business that operated between June 1996 and March 2002.

Olson pleaded guilty to charges related to the scam in 2003 and was sentenced to three years probation.

Wepner said he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in their case against Brian Ginsberg, who allegedly told Olson to fake the autographs on hundreds of photographs and posters.

Ginsberg, who sold sports memorabilia out of a store in Long Island and over the Internet, would then tell buyers that Wepner had taken the memorabilia to Ali and other prizefighters to be signed, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Ginsberg was arraigned last week in San Diego federal district court on 12 counts of mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Each count of mail fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, authorities said. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to next appear in court in September.

Wepner said yesterday that he is expected to testify against Ginsberg and will gladly do so.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Melanie K. Pierson, who is prosecuting the case against Ginsberg, referred to Wepner as "one of many people that the government might want to call for a witness."

The investigation into the faked autograph scam is a continuation of Operation Bullpen, spearheaded by the FBI to prosecute sellers of counterfeit sports and celebrity memorabilia, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

As part of the proposed plea deal, Wepner will plead guilty in a San Diego federal court in October to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, Pierson said.

Wepner said authorities told him that as part of the plea deal, he would be sentenced to probation. Pierson would not confirm that.

Neither of Wepner's two criminal attorneys, Peter Till or Anthony Fusco, returned phone calls yesterday.

Anthony G. Mango, who represents Wepner in a civil lawsuit against Sylvester Stallone - Wepner claims the movie "Rocky" was largely based on his life, but that he received no compensation - said Monday that this "criminal matter won't have any affect on (the civil case) at all."

Wepner was shocked and angry to hear from The Jersey Journal yesterday, saying part of his agreement with prosecutors was that the story would be kept out of the media.

"This is supposed to be a sealed indictment," he said.