The Los Angeles Times’s LA Now blog brings news of the sentencing of another art fraudster:
James Mobley, 63, of Woodland Hills, was sentenced in federal court Monday after pleading guilty to two felony counts of conspiracy and willful failure to file a tax return.
He is the third person to be sentenced to prison for an elaborate scam that brought in more than $20 million and duped more than 10,000 collectors across the country.
The televised show “Fine Art Treasures Gallery,” which aired on DirecTV and the Dish Network, claimed to sell art found at “estate liquidations all over the world” but in fact offered bogus works of art in auctions that were rigged to drive up prices, prosecutors said.
Auctioneer of bogus art sentenced to five years in prison (LA Now/Los Angeles Times)
