Crime & Litigation Archives - Page 145 of 146

Fugitive auctioneer dies of heart attack during police-escorted ride to airport

PORTLAND, Ore. (ACNI) – For more than four years, law enforcement agencies pursued rogue auctioneer Robert W. Mathisen across the country, intent on extraditing him back to Oregon to face multiple felony charges. But Mathisen will never see his day in court or face the more than two dozen Oregon citizens – many of them elderly – whom he allegedly cheated by taking both their money and antiques they had consigned to his Portland auction company, Professional Auction Group. Mathisen, 63, died of a heart attack on the morning of Feb. 12 as he was being transported by Multnomah County sheriff’s deputies to board a flight back to Oregon for arraignment.

On Jan. 29, 2009, U.S. Marshals tracked down and arrested Mathisen in Buffalo, New York. He had been on the run since 2004 and was wanted for a laundry list of crimes including aggravated theft for failure to pay consignors after selling their property, cherry-picking and keeping valuables that should have been auctioned, and fraudulently borrowing thousands of dollars in cash from victims who never saw their money again.

Because he was a previously convicted felon (1994 conviction for racketeering, theft by deception), Mathisen was also wanted for “felon possession of a firearm,” since seven collectible guns were among the cache of goods he allegedly stole from consignors. Police estimated that, in all, Mathisen had fled the state of Oregon with an estimated $1.7 million worth of antiques, furniture, jewelry and other personal property stolen from consignors.

A turning point in the case came in 2006 when one of Mathisen’s three sons, Darryl – who claimed he had been bilked by his own father – came forward with information that led police to the Chicago suburb of Mundelein. It is believed that Mathisen and his wife, Ginger, had been living there and that during their time spent under the radar in Illinois, Robert Mathisen had consigned some of the ill-gotten gains to Direct Auction Galleries, an unsuspecting auction house in Chicago that has no involvement with the felony case.

Greek man arrested with stash of antiquities

THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) – Greek police arrested a veterinarian with more than 2,000 illegally excavated antiquities, including a small clay statue from pre-Columbian America, officials said Friday.

Police in the northern district of Halkidiki said the 47-year-old Greek man was arrested Thursday in the village of Nea Moudania, about 40 miles (60 kilometers) south of Thessaloniki.

The items were found in the man’s home and at his shop that sells items for pets. Police also confiscated a .22-caliber revolver found in the man’s car.

The confiscated antiquities included more than 1,500 silver and copper coins dating from the 4th century B.C. to the 3rd century A.D., Halkidiki anti-crime squad director Giorgos Tassiopoulos said. Police seized another 680 clay and bronze artifacts, including vases, lamps, statuettes and jewelry.

All appeared to be Greek, apart from a pre-Colombian clay figurine from central or southern America. By law, all antiquities found in Greece are state property.

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Former museum guard pleads guilty to defacing $1.2M painting

PITTSBURGH (AP) – A former guard at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh has pleaded guilty to slashing a $1.2 million painting with a key and faces sentencing on April 7.

James Sheets, the attorney for 27-year-old Timur Serebrykov, says his client is getting mental health treatment and is hoping for probation.

The bigger question may be how much restitution a judge makes him pay.

Sheets says the Pittsburgh museum paid $5,000 to repair the painting. But the museum says the painting is now worth $240,000 less because of the damage and wants repaid. Sheets says it would take his client a lifetime to repay such a debt.

Serebrykov slashed Night Sky 2 by Latvian artist Vija Celmins on May 16 because he didn’t like it.

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Judge may decide who gets money from doll museum trust

Circa-1880 Thullier bebe. Courtesy LiveAuctioneers Archive and Noel Barrett Auctions.

MITCHELL, S.D. (AP) – This month a judge could hear the case of a trust fund established by the founder of the now-closed Enchanted World Doll Museum, a castle-like building across from the Corn Palace in Mitchell.

The museum’s board wants to give about $250,000 in trust fund money to the United Federation of Doll Clubs, which operates a doll museum in Kansas City, Mo.

Dennis Padrnos, a Mitchell lawyer who represents the museum board, said CorTrust Bank – which manages the trust fund – wants to give the money to the South Dakota Community Foundation’s Mitchell Area Charitable Foundation Endowment Fund.

The trust fund was set up by the late Eunice Thomas Reese, who founded the museum with her then-husband, Sheldon F. Reese.

Padrnos said Mrs. Reese left instructions about the trust fund.

Egypt charges Australian teacher with smuggling animal mummies

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) – An Australian teacher who allegedly stuffed his luggage with 2,000-year old animal mummies and religious figurines wrapped as gifts was arrested Wednesday and charged with smuggling antiquities, an Egyptian airport security official said.

The 61-year teacher was heading to Thailand when a security official became suspicious of the wrapped figurines that were placed amid souvenir ceramic pots in his suitcase.

When security officials opened the case, they found two mummies of a cat and an ibis, a long-beaked bird, both dating back to 300 B.C. The confiscated collection also included 19 figurines of the revered ancient Egyptian gods of Horus and Thoth, wrapped as gifts. Horus is a falcon-headed god, who represented the greatest cosmic powers for ancient Egyptians. Thoth is believed to have given the Egyptians the gift of hieroglyphic writing.

Former employee of Skinner’s indicted, charged with alleged theft of $724K

WORCESTER, Mass. – (ACNI) A former accounts receivable clerk at Skinner Inc.’s Bolton, Mass., auction gallery was indicted on Dec. 17 in Worcester and charged with the theft of more than $724,000 in cash and goods. Joanne Shea, 72, of Hudson, Mass., faces charges of larceny over $250 and making false entries in corporate books, according to the Office of State Attorney General Martha Coakley.

A well-respected company whose blue-chip sales have achieved several world auction records, Skinner Inc. first contacted Coakley’s office in October 2006, telling them they suspected Shea had been stealing money and merchandise from them over a 13-year period beginning in 1993. A Skinner representative told the State Attorney General’s office that they believed Shea had used a “lapping” scheme that utilized incoming cash payments to cover funds she had previously taken out. An investigation was launched, and details soon began to surface regarding how Shea had engineered the alleged crimes.
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Former Virginia museum worker sentenced for artifacts thefts

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) – A former archivist who admitted stealing Titanic items and other artifacts from the Mariners’ Museum will spend four years in a federal prison.

Lester F. Weber had pleaded guilty in June to mail fraud, theft from the Newport News attraction and filing a false tax return. The 46-year-old Weber was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Newport News.

Collector sues City of LA over enforcement of secondhand dealers ordinance

LOS ANGELES (ACNI) – All Richard Hopp says he wants to do is to collect and read books. Yet when he sets up at swap meets and advertises to buy books, enforcement officers of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Pawn Section unit warn him he needs a secondhand dealers permit. Tired of trying to convince them he is a collector and not a dealer doing business, Hopp has filed suit against the city.

In the civil suit filed Nov. 13 in Los Angeles Superior Court, Hopp is seeking a judgment declaring he is not a secondhand book dealer or secondhand seller. The suit also challenges the validity of the city ordinances regulating secondhand book dealers and secondhand sellers.

“According to Los Angeles Municipal Code, I am not subject or required to obtain or maintain a secondhand dealers permit. I’m not required because the biggest issue is the definition of the word business. I’m not a business,” said Hopp. “How can I be a business when I don’t sell anything.”

Upstate New York auctioneer faces grand larceny charge

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) _ Authorities are charging a central New York auctioneer with grand larceny, saying he owes a customer more than $19,000.

Timothy Conroy of Elbridge already faces a civil action filed by the state attorney general’s office seeking nearly $400,000 related to problems with his auction businesses, TW Conroy and Associates and My Sister the Lister.

In April, Conroy agreed to pay $150,000 to settle past consumer complaints against his company.

Conroy denies the charge and says he didn’t cheat anyone.

Prominent art dealer accused of selling forgeries

NEW YORK (AP) – A prominent New York and Miami art dealer was arrested on charges of selling forged paintings bearing the names of famous artists including Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall and Tom Wesselmann.

Guiseppe Concepcion was arrested Friday in Miami on wire fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property charges brought in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Prosecutors said Concepcion induced customers to buy the forgeries between 2005 and 2007 as he operated in Manhattan and out of the Proarte Gallery in Miami. But Concepcion’s lawyer said the dealer was a law-abiding, dedicated art enthusiast who had not committed any crime.

A criminal complaint unsealed Friday said Concepcion acquired authentic works by the renowned artists and then acquired or commissioned forgeries of the paintings.

Concepcion falsely represented to buyers that the forged versions were genuine or deliberately failed to disclose that they were forgeries, the complaint said.

One victim paid $120,000 and traded a 2004 Bentley to Concepcion to cover the $180,000 price tag of a purported Alexander Calder oil painting titled Red Swirl and dated 1969, prosecutors said in court papers.

The Calder Foundation inspected the canvas and determined it was fake, prosecutors said.

They said the same person had bought about 14 other artworks from Concepcion, and experts determined those also were forgeries.

The complaint listed two other victims. One bought a purported Chagall watercolor for $125,000, while the other bought a purported Wesselmann oil called Study for Smoker #16, the complaint said. Both, it added, were found to be fake.

Defense lawyer Mark Heller said Concepcion had been under investigation for several years and would be exonerated. “I sincerely believe they will not be able to convict him of any crime because his conduct at no time was criminal,” Heller said.

Heller said he was aware of questions about the authenticity of at least one artwork, but he noted that it had been bought and sold by various other dealers on its way to Concepcion.

“Clearly, anything can happen on its way through the marketplace. To persecute and accuse my client when it passed through the hands of other dealers is unfair and makes him a scapegoat,” he said.

Bail was set at $500,000. If convicted, Concepcion could face up to 30 years in prison.

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