By Nolan Strong
A blockbuster story by The Los Angeles Times that claimed Sean “Diddy” Combs and The Notorious B.I.G. may have had advanced knowledge about the 1994 assault of Tupac Shakur at the Quad Recording Studios in New York may have been fabricated it has been learned.
According to TheSmokingGun.com, FBI documents used by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chuck Phillips and The Los Angeles Times were allegedly forged by a con man and not authentic.
The FBI reports, dubbed “302’s” due to the form on which they are prepared, are not in the FBI’s Automated Case System.
The reports, which first appeared in a $16 million dollar lawsuit filed by imprisoned con man, James Sabatino against Sean “Diddy” Combs, were presented as official documents in the lawsuit.
Sabatino, who filed the lawsuit against Combs from prison, claims that he was present on the night Shakur was shot, something both Combs and accused conspirator Jimmy “Henchmen” Rosemond have vehemently denied.
An examination of the 302 documents revealed that the same typewriter that was used to create his lawsuit against Combs, may have been used to create the fake 302 documents the Los Angeles Times based their story on.
"I have been targeted by L.A Times writer Chuck Phillips and dishonest government informants in an effort to ruin my name in an industry that I've devoted 16 years of my life to,” Czar Entertainment CEO Jimmy “Henchmen” Rosemond said. “In this peaceful time in Hip-Hop, the L.A. Times' false accusations are as serious as when J. Edgar Hoover deliberately sent false hate letters to chapters of the Black Panther Party to create mistrust, violence and mayhem amongst them. Chuck Phillips irresponsibly did the same thing by creating a potentially violent climate in the Hip-Hop community. Because the truth has come out, I am finally hopeful that I can move forward in my service to the music industry."
There were also spelling errors consistent on both documents (“makeing” as opposed to “making”) further pointing to fraudulent documents.
Sabatino also recently launched a MySpace page, where he has made the outlandish claim of developing “Marky” Mark Wahlberg’s career and to being a roadie with New Kids On the Block, although he would have been only 15-years-old at the time.
The Los Angeles Times is currently investigating the claims that Sabatino’s 302 documents were forged.
Meanwhile, Jeffrey Lichtman, Rosemond’s lawyer, is busy planning legal action against Chuck Phillips and The Los Angeles Times.
"I wrote a letter late last year to Chuck Phillips and his editors at the L.A. Times in which I warned them that their information was wildly wrong about Mr. Rosemond's purported involvement in the 1994 shooting of Tupac; in my letter I warned them that if they persisted in publishing the story they would be sued for libel. Because the L.A. Times was more interested in selling newspapers than reporting the truth, James Rosemond has been tragically libeled. Any first year lawyer could see that the FBI 302 reports which formed the basis of the Times' story were fabricated – and yet the Times went ahead with the story anyway. I would suggest to Mr. Phillips and his editors that they immediately print an apology and take out their checkbooks – or brace themselves for an epic lawsuit.”
For more information visit http://www.thesmokinggun.com.