Baseball Signed by Mother Teresa Too Good to Be True

A perfectionist on the field and off, Gwynn was annoyed that the signature in the display window at the Encinitas store was sloppy and nearly unreadable. Not to mention fake.

"That really fried me," the future Hall of Fame right fielder said Wednesday. "I take some pride in making my signature legible."

Gwynn complained to team management and to Major League Baseball security officials.

Three years later, Gwynn's concern has culminated in the indictments of 26 Southern Californians in what the FBI is calling the largest, most lucrative and most brazen fraud ring ever busted for trafficking in phony sports and celebrity autographs and memorabilia.

Officials say the ring produced thousands of fraudulent items, including autographs billed as being from Marilyn Monroe before Joe DiMaggio; from Marilyn and Joe; from the Marx Brothers, Hillary Clinton, Bruce Lee, Princess Diana, Albert Einstein and the Beatles. Also a guitar supposedly signed by Elvis, a football shoe said to have been inked by Howard Cosell and posters from "Gone With The Wind" with signatures of Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh.

It even produced Mother Teresa's signature on a baseball.

"I think that pretty much says it all," said William Gore, special agent in charge of the FBI office in San Diego.

Twenty people, including six from a single family in Escondido, were arraigned Tuesday on conspiracy and mail fraud charges and agreed to plead guilty. Six more are due to be arraigned in federal court here and 20 more arrests are expected.

The defendants include five married couples.

Merchandise that was designed to be sold for more than $10 million was seized in California, New Jersey, Nevada, Florida and Pennsylvania. Seized as profits from the ring were a classic Ferrari, a 38-foot boat, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, two homes and $500,000 in cash from the family of alleged master forgers in Escondido.

In addition, the 26 defendants face a demand from the Internal Revenue Service for $2.75 million in taxes on unreported income. The ring had allegedly been operating for six years.

"Greed is the motivation behind these crimes," said San Diego IRS branch chief Al Allison at a Wednesday morning news conference. "Whenever greed is a motivating factor, there's a role for the IRS."