Sports Show Promoter to Plead Guilty in Fraud

The promoter accused of bilking celebrities and businessmen at a sports memorabilia show in Pasadena last September has agreed to plead guilty to an unrelated fraud charge from Texas.

Paul Hammack, known to those involved in the “Baseball Legends” event as Ernest Dent, appeared before U.S. Magistrate George K. King in Los Angeles Wednesday on a 5-year-old charge involving a disabled Laredo, Tex., man who claimed that Hammack swindled him out of $67,000.

Hammack signed an agreement to have the case transferred from Texas to California so he can enter a guilty plea, according to his attorney, Stephen R. Kahn. Pending a judge’s approval of the plea agreement, Hammack will serve 366 days in jail, Kahn said .

Hammack, 43, was accused by celebrities such as Mickey Mantle and others of defrauding them of more than $100,000 at the sports show. Prosecutors said the Pasadena case remains under review. No charges have been filed.