New York grand jury indicts Inigo Philbrick
A New York grand jury has indicted the art dealer Inigo
Philbrick, who was arrested last month while in hiding on the Pacific island
Vanuatu, on federal charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. In
charges filed last month, the United States Attorney for the Southern District
of New York, Geoffrey S. Berman, described Philbrick as “a serial swindler who
misled art collectors, investors, and lenders out of more than $20m.”
As a result of the indictment, Philbrick has been ordered to
forfeit any and all property derived from the profits of his fraud scheme,
including any property, such as works of art, that have been “transferred or
sold to, or deposited with, a third person”, or might otherwise have been put
beyond the immediate reach of authorities.
According to the US attorney’s complaint, Philbrick
defrauded multiple people and businesses in New York between 2016 and 2019 to
finance his art business. It claims that as part of the scheme, Philbrick
"made material misrepresentations and omissions to art collectors,
investors, and lenders to access valuable art and obtain sales proceeds,
funding, and loans" and that he "knowingly misrepresented the
ownership of certain artworks, for example, by selling a total of more than
100% ownership in an artwork to multiple individuals and entities without their
knowledge, and by selling artworks and/or using artworks as collateral on loans
without the knowledge of co-owners, and without disclosing the ownership
interests of third parties to buyers and lenders."
Philbrick's alleged fraud scheme started to come to light
last autumn, as investors and lenders realised some of the documents they had
been given were made up and became suspicious of the misrepresentations and
omissions the dealer had made, according to the complaint. Around mid-October,
Philbrick defaulted on a loan of around $14m and by November, a number of
investors had filed civil lawsuits for fraud against Philbrick in multiple
jurisdictions.
Since his arrest by the FBI, Philbrick was held in a federal
detention center in Honolulu, Hawaii, according to court documents, and then
transferred to a facility in Chickasha, Oklahoma. His lawyer Peter Brill says
Philbrick "looks forward to addressing these allegations in court and asks
those who know him (or know of him) to withhold judgment until the criminal
justice process plays out." Brill adds that Philbrick entered a plea of
not guilty and is being held by authorities in New York.
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