Fugitive Art Dealer Inigo Philbrick Has Been Arrested on a Pacific Island and Charged With Orchestrating a $20 Million Fraud Scheme

Art dealer Inigo Philbrick, who has been accused of defrauding
collectors out of tens of millions of dollars, has
been arrested by US Department of Justice (DOJ) agents and
charged with operating a $20 million fraud scheme.

Based on the number of lawsuits and international asset seizure
requests filed in the past eight months—which is around how long
the embattled dealer has been in hiding—the total amount is likely
to be far higher once the dust settles.

Philbrick, 33, is described in a DOJ statement as “a
fugitive since October 2019.” He was charged with one count of wire
fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. The wire fraud
charge carries a maximum prison term of 20 years. The aggravated
identity theft charge carries a mandatory sentence of two years in
prison.

Federal law enforcement agents took Philbrick into custody
yesterday in the island nation of Vanuatu after local authorities
“expelled” him at the request of the US Embassy, according to the
DOJ. Philbrick was then transported to Guam, where he is expected
to be presented in US federal court on Monday, June 15.

Flight records show that Philbrick departed the United States
shortly before public reporting about the lawsuits was published.
Based on information provided by Vanuatu, he had been residing in
the island country since late October 2019.

“As alleged, Inigo Philbrick was a serial swindler who misled
art collectors, investors, and lenders out of more than $20
million,” US Attorney for the Southern District of New York
Geoffrey S. Berman said in the statement. “You can’t sell more than
100 percent ownership in a single piece of art, which Philbrick
allegedly did, among other scams. When his schemes began to
unravel, Philbrick allegedly fled the country. Now he is in US
custody and facing justice.”

“Philbrick allegedly sought out high-dollar art investors, sold
pieces he didn’t own, and played games with millions of dollars in
other people’s money. The game ended when investors began wondering
where their money went,” FBI assistant director William F. Sweeney
Jr. added, noting that “if convicted, he might have to trade in his
jet-set life for a drab federal prison cell.”

According to allegations unsealed today in Manhattan
federal court, from approximately 2016 through 2019, Philbrick
engaged in a scheme to defraud multiple individuals and entities in
the art market as a means to finance his art business; he is
accused of making material misrepresentations and omissions to art
collectors, investors, and lenders to access valuable works
of  art and obtain sales proceeds, funding, and loans; and he
knowingly misrepresented the ownership of certain artworks by
selling a total of more than 100 percent of the share in an artwork
to multiple individuals, according to court records.

Philbrick is also accused of supplying investors with fraudulent
contracts and records, including at least one document naming a
stolen identity as a seller, to inflate artworks’ values and
conceal his scheme.

The complaint mentions artworks that Artnet News has previously
reported on as the subject of multi-million dollar lawsuits,
including examples by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Rudolf Stingel,
Christopher Wool, and others.

The alleged scheme began to unravel last fall as various
investors and lenders learned about the fraudulent records. At
around the same time, his art galleries in Miami and London were
abruptly shuttered, and he stopped responding to the “legal
process,” according to the DOJ statement.

The post Fugitive Art Dealer Inigo Philbrick Has Been
Arrested on a Pacific Island and Charged With Orchestrating a $20
Million Fraud Scheme appeared first on artnet News.