A Miami artwork seller was indicted on fees that he bought fraudulent Andy Warhols to collectors and supplied them with faux invoices and solid authentication paperwork to make them seem professional.
The indictment accuses the seller, Leslie Roberts of Miami Advantageous Artwork Gallery, of going to elaborate lengths to persuade patrons that the works had been professional Warhols, together with by utilizing faux stamps and fraudulent identification numbers.
“To make the fraudulent artwork look like genuine items created by Andy Warhol, Leslie Howard Roberts utilized solid authentication paperwork that had been purportedly supplied by the Andy Warhol Artwork Authentication Board, Inc.,” the indictment learn. (The board ceased operations over a decade in the past.)
Two different defendants had been additionally charged with participating in Mr. Roberts’s scheme by posing as workers of a New York public sale home “to fraudulently authenticate paintings in an effort to conceal that the paintings was not created by Andy Warhol.”
Mr. Roberts, who was arrested on wire fraud and cash laundering fees on Wednesday and launched on bond, didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
The small print of the indictment, which was filed in Federal District Courtroom in Miami and unsealed on Thursday, align with a lawsuit filed last year against Mr. Roberts. The civil go well with was filed by a household of artwork collectors who accused Mr. Roberts of duping them into paying hundreds of thousands of {dollars} for fraudulent Warhols, together with the artist’s well-known colourful portraits of Queen Elizabeth and Marilyn Monroe.
On the time the go well with was filed, Mr. Roberts denied promoting the household forgeries, and he and his legal professionals have been combating the case in civil courtroom.
“I don’t consider something was a forgery — all the pieces appeared good to me,” Mr. Roberts stated in an interview with The New York Instances in August. He added: “I don’t know the place the authority is they are saying it’s faux.”
However final week, a grand jury indicted Mr. Roberts on felony fees associated to the case. The identical day, Mr. Roberts filed for chapter.
One other defendant, Carlos Miguel Rodriguez Melendez, was accused of posing as an worker of a New York public sale home and charged with wire fraud conspiracy. His lawyer, Nayib Hassan, stated in an electronic mail that his consumer “vehemently maintains his innocence and appears ahead to the chance to current the complete info in a courtroom of regulation.”
A 3rd defendant’s title is redacted from courtroom papers.
Mr. Roberts has confronted felony fees associated to solid artworks earlier than. In 2015, he pleaded responsible to mail fraud and served a jail sentence after acknowledging to prosecutors that he and his youngsters had defrauded prospects by promoting them solid work, in line with courtroom paperwork.
And in 1987, when he was in his 20s, Mr. Roberts was sentenced to prison time for defrauding a family member of millions of dollars when he was a younger stockbroker.
The brand new felony inquiry into Mr. Roberts turned obvious this week when the local news captured the F.B.I. raiding his artwork gallery within the upscale Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami.
Within the civil go well with, filed final August, a household of artwork collectors — Matthew, Judy and Richard Perlman — accused Mr. Roberts of duping them into paying greater than $6 million for fraudulent Warhols.
The lawsuit claimed that Mr. Roberts instructed the Perlmans that he might get them Warhols at a reduction by means of his relationship with the Warhol basis, and the household started shopping for works it thought had been by Warhol. An amended model of the lawsuit lists greater than 250 works that the Perlmans bought, together with unique canvases (John Lennon and Albert Einstein for about $30,000 every) and silk-screens (John Wayne for $75,000; a group of Maos for $325,000).
The partnership started to collapse later when Richard Perlman and his spouse approached Christie’s to promote a number of the works, and the public sale home raised doubts about their authenticity. The go well with stated that two folks then got here to the household’s Florida dwelling with enterprise playing cards claiming that they had been appraisers from a rival public sale home, Phillips, and declared the works to be genuine Warhols.
“Les Roberts betrayed the Perlmans’ belief and went to nice lengths to cowl up his fraud,” Luke Nikas, a lawyer representing the household, stated in an announcement on Thursday.
Within the interview in August, Mr. Roberts denied the lawsuit’s model of occasions. He stated Matthew Perlman had been an energetic companion in a three way partnership they’d organized to buy Warhols, saying that Mr. Perlman labored alongside him for “each single one” of the artwork purchases. He claimed that all the artworks had come from professional sources.
“I attempt to be extra cautious than ever,” he stated on the time, “due to my previous.”
