Ex-L.A. Columnist and Wife Indicted on Fraud Charges : Media: Couple are accused of inventing fictitious sources who were paid by tabloids for information on celebrities.

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles on Tuesday indicted former newspaper columnist Tony Castro and his wife for mail fraud and tax violations, accusing them of using fictitious sources to sell information about celebrities to supermarket tabloids.

The indictment charges Castro, 45, a onetime political reporter and columnist at the defunct Los Angeles Herald Examiner, and Renee Castro, 31, with 21 counts of mail fraud and tax evasion.

It accuses the Beverly Hills couple of fraudulently selling information about Elizabeth Taylor, Magic Johnson, Madonna and other celebrities to the Globe, the National Enquirer and the Star tabloids for more than $214,000 between 1987 and 1990. Tony Castro was a reporter at the Globe during that time.

Assistant U. S. Atty. Ronni B. MacLaren said the indictment was the result of an eight-month investigation by the U. S. Postal Inspection Service and the Internal Revenue Service. If convicted, each of the Castros faces up to 100 years in prison and $5 million in fines.

The indictment alleges that the Castros assumed false identities by which they sold information to the National Enquirer and the Star. The addresses that the couple gave the publications for mailing of payments were actually commercial mailboxes that the couple controlled, the indictment says.

In addition, Tony Castro is accused of inventing “reliable sources” without which certain stories could not have been produced, and having the Globe pay the “sources.” Prosecutors said the payments actually went to Castro or his wife.

In addition to the mail fraud counts, the couple are charged with violating tax laws by failing to report on their 1989 and 1990 tax returns money they received as payment to the bogus sources.

A lawyer for the Globe, which is based in Boca Raton, Fla., and officials in the tabloid’s Los Angeles bureau declined comment Tuesday, but a Globe employee who asked not to be identified said that Tony Castro left the publication about six months ago.