The NY Times reported that last week the FBI raided the Helly Nahmad Gallery located in the Carlyle Hotel in New York City. The raid appears to be less about art than about an illegal gambling and money laundering scheme.
The NY Times reports
Source: The NY Times, through CNBC
But on Tuesday, the family's New York flagship gallery, the Helly Nahmad Gallery, at the opulent Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan, was filled with agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducting a raid. An indictment unsealed on Tuesday charged its owner, Hillel Nahmad, 34, with playing a leading role in a far-flung gambling and money-laundering operation that stretched from Kiev and Moscow to Los Angeles and New York.
The case features a wide cast of characters, including a man described as a Russian gangster accused of trying to rig Winter Olympic skating competitions in Salt Lake City and a woman who once organized high-stakes poker games for some of Hollywood's most famous faces.
In all, 34 people were charged on Tuesday with playing a part in what federal prosecutors described as two separate but interconnected criminal groups — one operating overseas and the other in the United States. Together, they are accused of laundering more than $100 million in gambling money.
In addition to charges that Mr. Nahmad helped finance a multimillion-dollar gambling ring in the United States, the art dealer is accused of defrauding an unnamed person by selling him a painting for $300,000 when it was worth only $50,000, according to the indictment.
Mr. Nahmad, the indictment said, also wired money — once for $500,000 and another time for $850,000 — from his father's bank account in Switzerland to a bank account in America to help finance the gambling operation.
The Nahmad family's rise to prominence dates from its roots in Aleppo, Syria, where the family's patriarch, also named Hillel, was a successful banker in the middle of the last century.
He had three sons, David, Ezra and Giuseppe; Giuseppe died last year in London.
David Nahmad, whose son Hillel ran the New York gallery, has been described as a risk-taker in both business and life. In Monte Carlo, he won the World Championship of Backgammon in 1996.
Over the years the family has amassed an estimated 300 Picassos worth $900 million, and about 4,500 other works by artists including Monet and Miró, many secreted in a duty-free warehouse near the Geneva airport. It is a treasure that Forbes estimated to be worth over $3 billion. Before this week, Hillel Nahmad's gallery was a cynosure of refinement and wealth, with masters like Wassily Kandinsky and Francis Bacon on the walls.
With an entrance at Madison Avenue and 76th Street, the gallery's connection with the Carlyle, itself synonymous with privilege, added to its prestige. The gallery has been at the Carlyle since at least the late 1990s.
However, even before the F.B.I. raid at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, the gallery's windows were covered with brown paper, which is unusual since the spring art season is just kicking into high gear.
A sign on the door said, "We are closed for renovation, please ring the bell or call."
A man who answered the phone at that number declined to speak to a reporter.
According to the indictment, Hillel Nahmad was one of the leaders of a "high-stakes illegal gambling business run out of New York City and Los Angeles that catered primarily to multimillionaire and billionaire clients."
He was expected to surrender to the authorities in Los Angeles on Tuesday. His lawyer could not be immediately reached for comment.
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