The Courthouse News Service is reporting that a grand jury has indicted three individuals with criminal charges of mail and wire fraud in a scheme to sell fraudulent prints. The counterfeit/fake prints are of course from Dali, Picasso, Chagall, Warhol and others. The report says the scheme illegally sold $500,000 worth of fraudulent and misrepresented art. Those charged could face up to 20 years in jail and $250,000.00 fines.
The Courthouse News Service reports
Click HERE to read the full report.From 1991 to January 2008, Kass knowingly acquired from "various sources," including Panos, "counterfeit and unauthorized prints and other artworks of well-known artists, including among others, Alexander Calder, Salvador Dali, Marc Chagall, Roy Lichtenstein, Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso, Marino Marini, Keith Haring, and Andy Warhol, in order to distribute and sell them as original limited edition fine art prints and other original works of art," according to the indictment.
The pieces "bore forged signatures and/or false numerical or other markings making them appear as if they had been part of an original limited edition or had been prepared for the artist's own use," prosecutors say.
Panos forged some of the signatures himself, and he and Kass falsely numbered them, according to the indictment.
Even after eBay removed some listings because the art was deemed counterfeit, Kass had Cade relist the items "and to attempt to sell them by means," prosecutors say.
Kass and Cade also "created and provided to some customers 'certificates of authenticity' signed by defendant Kass, which they knew contained false representations about the artist, year of publication and number in the edition of the counterfeit and unauthorized prints defendants Kass and Cade were selling," according to the indictment.
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