Sopranos actor admits to counterfeiting

Sopranos actor admits to counterfeiting

  June 17, 2014    Dapper_Don

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A wannabe bad-boy actor who played the burly mobster “Muscles Marinara” on “The Sopranos” was slapped with five years’ probation in Manhattan on Monday for passing $100 bills that were as fake as his Mafia image.

Louis Gross avoided a trip up the river as part of a no-jail deal after pleading guilty last April to charges of criminal possession of a forged instrument.

Gross, 29 — who spent one season on the hit HBO show as Tony Soprano’s driver, Perry “Muscles Marinara” Annunziata — was busted last August with eight counterfeit C-notes after buying a burger at a Third Avenue bar.

On Monday, he said he hoped to put his criminal escapades behind him and get back into acting.

“I’m nearly 30,” he said. “I have things career-wise I want to get done, and this is a distraction.”

Gross’ girlfriend declined to watch as Manhattan Supreme Court Justice A. Kirke Bartley handed down the sentence. She instead waited outside with a look on her face that could kill faster than a Mafia hit man’s bullet.

“She’s as supportive as they come, but she’s had to deal with a lot from me,” Gross said. “I love her to death.”

Gross would have faced up to 15 years in prison if convicted of the felony counts against him.

He initially claimed ignorance about the bills.

“I ordered a hamburger and went to pay at the bar,” he had claimed.

“[The owner] said this is fake. I said I’m really sorry and started walking down the block, and the police jumped out.”

In the past Gross has praised Gandolfini for supporting him and helping his career.

“He was one of the best people I met in the industry,” he said of the beloved actor who died at age 51 of a heart attack last summer.

http://nypost.com/2014/06/16/sopranos-actor-cops-to-counterfeiting/