MIAMI (AP) — A South Florida artwork vendor and one other man face costs involving the sale of pretend Andy Warhol artworks, authorities stated.
Leslie Roberts, 62, of Miami, and Carlos Miguel Rodriguez Melendez, 37, of Sunny Isles, had been arrested Wednesday and made their preliminary appearances in Miami federal courtroom, in accordance with courtroom data.
Protection lawyer Nayib Hassan, who represents Rodriguez Melendez, stated his shopper maintains his innocence and appears ahead to presenting the complete info in a courtroom of legislation. Roberts’ protection lawyer and Miami Fantastic Artwork Gallery didn’t instantly reply to emails searching for remark concerning the costs.
In accordance with the indictment, Roberts, the proprietor of Miami Fantastic Artwork Gallery in Coconut Grove, fraudulently represented artwork as unique items created by famend artist Andy Warhol. Prosecutors stated Roberts falsely claimed to victims that he acquired the paintings straight from the Andy Warhol Basis for the Visible Arts and offered pretend and fraudulent invoices to the victims.
Roberts additionally transferred at the least $240,000 in wire fraud proceeds from his Miami Fantastic Artwork Gallery checking account to a private checking account, the indictment stated.
Rodriguez Melendez falsely claimed to work for a New York-based public sale firm to fraudulently authenticate the paintings, concealing that the paintings was pretend, investigators stated.
Roberts is charged with collaborating in a conspiracy to promote cast artwork utilizing pretend and fraudulent invoices and authentications, and Rodriguez Melendez is charged with collaborating within the wire fraud conspiracy. They’ve been launched on bond, with an arraignment listening to scheduled for April 21.
If convicted, Roberts faces as much as 30 years in jail and Rodriguez Melendez faces 20.
One other South Florida artwork vendor was sentenced in 2023 to 2 years and three months in federal jail for promoting pretend Warhols. Daniel Elie Bouaziz, who owned two galleries in Palm Seashore County, had pleaded responsible to a single rely of cash laundering, whereas prosecutors agreed to drop 16 different counts associated to fraud and embezzlement.
Warhol was an American visible artist and filmmaker most related to the pop artwork motion of the Nineteen Sixties.
