Man Admits Selling Fake Memorabilia

A Moorpark man has pleaded guilty to federal charges that he sold sports memorabilia with forged signatures of U.S. presidents through his Canoga Park pawnshop, the U.S. attorney’s office said Thursday.

Richard C. Schwartz, 59, owner of Buena Jewelry & Loan, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of mail fraud in Los Angeles federal court, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Marc Harris.

Schwartz was indicted by a federal grand jury in October for allegedly selling, between July 1994 and June 1995, hundreds of baseballs, bats and clothing items supposedly signed by former Presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush and John F. Kennedy. Some of the items were later resold at auctions and on cable television’s Home Shopping Network for as much as $250 apiece.

According to Harris, Schwartz also admitted hiring a Reagan impersonator to sign items. Photographs of the impersonator were later offered to buyers as proof of the items’ authenticity. Schwartz, however, denied knowing that the signatures of John and Jacqueline Kennedy on a baseball he sold to a Whittier sports memorabilia shop are bogus, Harris said.

Scheduled for sentencing March 21, Schwartz faces up to five years in prison.

Also named in the indictment was former U.S. Secret Service Agent Randolph Espinosa, 45, who the government alleges provided authentic Reagan stationery for phony “certificates of authenticity” that accompanied Schwartz’s sports items. Trial for Espinosa is set for next week, Harris said.