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What Dreier Did for Art

March 30, 2009 by Marion Maneker

Disgraced lawyer, con artist and fraud, Marc Dreier has penchant for the high life. He seems to have run through $670 million between 2004-2008 covering up his firm’s losses and funding his taste for large yachts and paintings. The court-appointed receiver, Mark Pomerantz just completed a report on Dreier’s assets and spending, according to the Associated Press:

Pomerantz said Dreier maintained an extensive fine art collection worth about $39 million, including paintings, photographs, prints and sculptures. Dreier used “enormous amounts of stolen funds” to purchase the art, most of which was kept in his homes, though some was displayed at his law firm, Pomerantz said.

Pomerantz said he couldn’t locate several pieces of art, including a Picasso sketch worth an estimated $35,000 that was last seen in Dreier’s Manhattan apartment in November 2008. He said Dreier’s ex-wife, Elisa Dreier, filed a security interest in the sketch and her lawyer has told the receiver’s office that she has the sketch and claims title to it under the terms of her separation from her husband.

[ . . . ] Dreier used money from a fake note he sold in 2007 to buy the yacht, which was equipped with flat screen televisions, a wine collection and was one of only 10 of its kind in the world, Pomerantz said. He said Dreier later mortgaged the vessel through Wachovia Bank for $10.6 million and apparently used that money to buy several pieces of art, including an untitled Keith Haring painting from 1982 and Andy Warhol’s four “Jackie” paintings.

More Than $100 Million in Swindled Assets Found (Associated Press)

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Filed Under: Fraud, Theft & Restitution

About Marion Maneker

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