HBO hit with $5 million defamation suit (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A sports memorabilia expert filed a 5 million defamation lawsuit on Tuesday against cable television channel HBO and those associated with its "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" program for a segment that accused him of participating in a large-scale forgery ring.

Donald Frangipani, a long-time authenticator of celebrity and sports autographs and other memorabilia, filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The suit names as defendants HBO, Gumbel, on-air reporter Armen Keteylan and several of the shows producers.

The HBO piece entitled "Forgers Paradise" was about fake signed sports memorabilia sold to the public over the Internet and the FBI investigation called "Operation Bullpen" that in 2000 broke up a forgery ring and seized an alleged 10 million in counterfeit memorabilia.

The segment named Frangipani as the forgery rings authenticator of choice and alleged that Frangipani had knowingly provided fake Certificates of Authenticity for thousands of forged items. COAs are used as proof that an autograph or item being sold is genuine.

The lawsuit accuses HBO of deliberately defaming Frangipani even though he was never indicted or charged with involvement in the forgery ring.

The suit claims the HBO segment relied on accusations by Sheldon Jaffe, who had pleaded guilty to taking part in the forgery ring and who it says "is very hostile" to Frangipani.

"The HBO defendants were grossly irresponsible and acted with malice when they repeated these statements without confirming the truthfulness of them, and led the viewer to such false and defamatory conclusions," the suit said.

It further claims that the segment was deliberately edited "to mislead viewers into believing that Frangipani approved items without really examining them."

The HBO report included the statement: "all told Frangipani issued COAs for thousands of pieces sent to him by" the forgery ring.

The suit says Jaffe sent some authentic items to Frangipani so that legitimate COAs could be forged as well. It claims Frangipani declined 50 to 60 items of more than 400 sent by Jaffe and that Frangipani did not learn that his COAs were being forged until it was revealed by Operation Bullpen.

Frangipani is seeking a jury trial and damages of not less than 5 million plus punitive damages and the cost of the suit.

HBO, which is owned by Time Warner Inc, did not immediately return calls seeking comment on the lawsuit.

(Editing by Mark Porter)