Federal Wire Fraud Charges for Selling Fake Masterpieces
Eric Ian Spoutz, the 32-year-old art dealer from the Detroit area, was arrested recently for allegedly selling fake “masterpieces” to art collectors, and claiming that they are the real thing.
Spoutz, whose business is Michigan based, but deals with clients from all over the world, was arrested in his apartment in Hollywood, California. According to the FBI, he has been charged with wire fraud.
The complaint states that Spoutz deceived his buyers into purchasing forged art by “falsely and fraudulently representing that they were authentic paintings by well-known artists.” These artists include Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Joan Mitchell and Paul Jenkins.
From at least February 2010, until somewhere in March of 2015, Spouts is accused of selling a significant number of forged paintings. He is also accused of creating false origination documents by forging letters from art galleries and law firms, along with producing fake sales receipts. All of this, according to Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, in order to make thousands of dollars selling worthless fakes.
Alleged to have resold paintings formerly returned to him
He is also accused of using aliases in order to sell forged art, including the names “Robert Chad Smith”, “John Goodman” and “James Sinclair”. He allegedly used these names in order to disguise his direct connection with the fraudulent sales, and was also alleged to have resold paintings formerly returned to him because the new owner discovered that they were fakes.
Court documents reveal that Spoutz has been accused of selling forged art before, in particular on ebay. He is said to have refunded money to clients who insisted on returning the paintings, but then simply turned around and tried to sell the artwork to other buyers.
During an interview with the FBI, Spoutz apparently claimed that he had a collection of 30 or more pieces by Willem De Kooning, but because he wasn’t certain that they were actually De Kooning’s work, he was selling them as “attributed to” the artist.
It is also alleged that Spoutz, using his “John Goodman” alias, sold two forged Joan Mitchell pastels to a New York buyer in 2013. But the sale was canceled when the buyer’s suspicions were aroused. Apparently Spoutz’s paypal account carried the name “Robert Smith”. When the buyer pulled out due to the discrepancy, Spoutz is said to have tried to explain that Robert Smith was his business partner.
Later that same year, Spoutz allegedly again sold forged Mitchell paintings to a buyer. However, that buyer returned the works, claiming that they had been “advised against the purchase.”
Under federal law, wire fraud is punishable by substantial fines and the possibility of up to 20 years in prison.