A former California resident made hundreds of thousands of dollars by selling fake celebrity memorabilia, including forged signatures of the Kardashians and President Donald Trump, federal authorities said Monday.
Anthony J. Tremayne, 58, who used to live in the Los Angeles suburb of West Covina but now resides in Rosarito, Mexico, pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud, according to federal prosecutors in Southern California.
Tremayne peddled the phony merchandise between 2010 and 2019, taking in “more than $250,000 and up to $550,000,” prosecutors said.
“Tremayne was in the business of selling memorabilia containing purportedly genuine signatures of famous athletes, musicians, actors, and other celebrities,” prosecutors said. “Tremayne advertised nationwide the memorabilia with purportedly genuine signatures.”
Tremayne’s defense attorney could not be immediately reached for comment on Tuesday.
Tremayne allegedly complained that his business did not warrant attention from federal authorities.
When FBI agents seized some of the bogus material on Dec. 23, 2014, Tremayne said, “Why me? This is not a big deal. It seems like the FBI would have better things to do,” according to a 2019 grand jury indictment against the former Californian.
Among the items Tremayne sold to an undercover FBI agent was a ” ‘Keeping up with the Kardashians’ photograph that had forged signatures of three of the show’s personality,” the indictment said.
Other items that Tremayne listed for sale include “a photograph of the current president” in December 2019, according to the indictment. At that time of late 2019, Donald Trump would have been at the tail end of his third year in office.
Tremayne is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 11 when he’ll face maximum sentence of 20 years behind bars.
Lindsay Good and Helen Kwong contributed.
