By: RJ Walker
Published: Mar. 31, 2008 - Los Angeles, CA

The L.A. Times and its reporter Chuck Phillips, whose report on Tupac used forged documents, both issued apologies on the inaccurate reporting. The story covered the widely covered story concerning Tupac Shakur in 1994 at the Quad Studio in Manhattan. Phillips issued a statement Wednesday, saying, "In relying on documents that I now believe were fake, I failed to do my job. I'm sorry."

The forged documents that Phillips based the story on where provided to him by con man James Sabatino from a lawsuit against Sean "Diddy" Combs according to the website Smoking Gun. The documents were fake FBI reports that Sabatino tried to use in the $19 million dollar suit against Combs, but contain typographical errors and acronyms not used by the FBI. In addition the copies were made on a typewriter and typewriter had not been used by the FBI for decades.

The report that Phillips wrote for the L.A. Times implicated that both Combs and Jimmy "The Henchman" Rosemond possessed previous knowledge that Shakur was going to get attacked in 1994, an assertion that both men deny. Both men suggested that defamation suits could follow, with Rosemond's lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman commenting, "I would suggest to Mr. Philips and his editors that they immediately print an apology and take out their checkbooks-or brace themselves for an epic lawsuit."