WEBVTT - De Sole et al v. Knoedler Gallery, LLC 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:08.200 Galling mystifying. I think I would get me to a nunnery. 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:12.840 I mean I would go and do penance, you know, 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:17.759 go work for some nonprofit in the art world for 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:22.000 the rest of my career and try to atone for 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:30.440 whatever had happened. In the grim aftermath of the closing 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:34.920 of the Nler Gallery, ten lawsuits were filed by cheated customers, 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:41.120 most notably Domenico and Eleanor desle There saga began with 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:45.080 a shriek in a Miami hotel room after reading the 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:48.920 story of the fake Lagrange Pollock in The New York Times. 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:59.120 Most former customers of the now shuttered gallery just wanted 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:03.920 to recoup their losses. Investigators concluded that no fewer than 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:07.840 sixty fake paintings had been created at the direction of 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:14.280 Fara Rosales. At trial, an accounting expert would testify that 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:18.400 Freedman and dealer Julian Weissman had sold their clients seventy 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:22.639 million dollars in fakes, yielding a net income of thirty 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:26.160 three point seven million dollars for Knodler and generating more 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:30.440 than ten million dollars in commissions for Anne. This was 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:33.720 in addition to her salary estimated to be four hundred 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:39.160 thousand dollars annually. Michael Hammer took his own four hundred 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:44.959 thousand dollars salary plus of both galleries, a near limitless fund, 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:49.640 spewing cash to eight thirty one his private holding company. 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:53.800 As for Rosales, no taxes had been paid from her 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:58.200 sales to Knodler, so profit estimates varied. The New York 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:00.800 Times would later declare that Rosa Alice had taken in 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:04.400 about twenty six million dollars from her sale of paintings 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:07.360 to the two dealers. That was all money that would 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:10.480 have to be disgorged, along with some twelve point five 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:17.200 million dollars due to the i R s. Surprisingly, one 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:20.760 of the first to settle was Pierre Lagrange himself in 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:25.760 October two thou twelve. Shouting from the rooftops had earned 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:30.560 Lagrange some admiration, but also his share of ridicule among 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:35.200 collectors for buying a painting without doing due diligence. He 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:38.639 had vowed to get his seventeen million dollars back, but Artsy, 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:42.800 the online art magazine, published a rumor It's settled for 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:47.040 six point four million dollars, being first in line for 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:50.959 a refund, had its advantages. There was likely more money 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:54.880 in the galleries till to be had. The Desoles, by contrast, 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:58.520 felt bound by a sense of mission. Their lawsuit was 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:01.840 aimed at making the true public in a civil trial. 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:06.400 Having a judge and jury declare FIRA's forgery ring to 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:10.000 be nothing less than a racketeering conspiracy was the real 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:18.160 prize for them. Assistant District Attorney Jason Hernandez was taking 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:20.800 a very different approach. He was trying to make a 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:25.079 criminal case of the notetor's dealings. Surprisingly, it was far 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:28.520 from a slam dunk. What we were doing previously is 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:32.160 sort of your art fraud one on one playbook. You've 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:34.040 got to prove that the paintings are fake, and you've 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:36.360 got to prove that someone who sold them knew that 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:39.880 they were fake. But it was very clear that this 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:44.440 was going to be especially difficult following our usual kind 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:48.720 of playbook in this case, because well, there were an 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:53.200 unusually large number of prominent people who seemingly We're going 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:55.600 to stand by the paintings and say that they were real. 0:03:57.240 --> 0:04:01.360 That is uncommon, and I could see right away, well, 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:04.440 you know, how do you get over that? Because if 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:07.440 the person selling them is showing them to all of 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:11.240 these esteemed people, and they're saying, yep, looks right to me, 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:14.160 looks good to me. That's not a criminal case anymore. 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:16.839 You're not going to be able to prove fraud that 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:19.479 someone intended to deceive, because they'll say, well, you know, 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:22.400 this museum director said it was good, and I mean 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:24.960 you know, and Freeman bought one of the paintings. It 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:32.520 was well thought out. The truth is all of the 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:36.640 experts declined to authenticate the paintings in any official capacity. 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:39.800 They've seen them in passing on the notors walls at 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:42.880 cocktail parties, but none of the experts had any interest 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:46.080 and testifying. You gotta remember it's it's a criminal case, 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:48.960 so you have to prove your case to twelve people 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:53.360 beyond a reasonable doubt. We weren't really getting anywhere with 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:59.359 the conventional investigative methods, and the provenance was very difficult 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:02.680 to di proved. Glafira was alas we know very virtually 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:06.440 nothing about. She told nod Lern and Freedom that she 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:10.040 was a brokera representing a family that she wouldn't disclose 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:12.840 and I can't get hurt to disclose it, so I 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:15.320 can't issue her a grand jury subpoena and say tell 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:17.440 me the name. She would just assert her fit in 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:20.760 them and right and refuse to tell me. My thought was, 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:23.680 I can kind of through the back door figure out 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:26.920 whether or not Glafira was Alas represents a family that 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:30.920 owns these paintings, because if she's lying about that, that 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:33.799 is going to be a crime that I can charge, Okay, 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:36.080 because that's in a very important part of the provenance. 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:40.080 Imagine if she's lying about this actually being a European 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:43.160 family that bought these and stored them over all these decades, well, 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:46.080 that is something I can charge her with. So she 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:48.400 says she's a brokera she says the paintings are not hers. 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:51.560 I could see that all the money would go from 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:54.240 the Nobler Gallery once they would purchase them to a 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:56.880 couple bank accounts, I think two or three in Spain. 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:00.280 So my thought was, I'm gonna ask Spain that we 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:02.880 have a treaty with Spain to for their bank records. 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:05.800 And then if she is a broker, I'm going to 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:12.919 see or whatever percentage go to the family in Europe 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:15.520 and it's going to go to a bank account in 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:18.240 some other country probably and then I lost that country 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:21.039 to give me the bank records, and you might prevail there. 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:24.440 You might actually get foreign banks to cooperate and give 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:26.960 you records that would prove that she had been engaged 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:30.800 in financial shenanigans. That's right, let's see where the money flows. 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:34.400 So I took that kind of old approach. Okay, you know, 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:37.919 follow the money to the sexier world of art fraud, 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:40.480 where you follow the pigments and those sorts of things. 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:44.400 And what it showed was that she was lying about 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:48.280 who owned the paintings. She owned them, someone else owned them, 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:51.600 but she's keeping all the money. So that gave me 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:55.400 a fraud charge against her. Okay, you are falsely representing 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:59.800 to the Nobler Gallery that these paintings belonged to you know, 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:02.120 then fill in the long story what she told all 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:05.080 that that yarn she spun about who it belonged to. 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:09.400 I now have leverage against CFIA. I have a criminal charge. 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:11.400 It's a lot of money, you know, many millions of 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:14.480 dollars of paintings, so it's a significant fraud. And then 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:17.240 on top of that, she is not reporting any of 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:20.760 this money as income, so there is a tax charge there. 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:23.800 Nor is she reporting the fact that she has formed 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:27.240 bank accounts in excess of ten thousand dollars, which is 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:31.120 another federal crime. So now the deck is stacked way 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:33.679 high against the FIA Rosol. She's kind of got nowhere 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:39.240 to run. I have very simple, provable, direct, strong criminal 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:42.760 charges against her, and now I can kind of use 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:48.200 that as pressure um to get her to talk unless 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:49.840 she's willing to spend, you know, a lot of time 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:57.600 in prison. One night, early in the summer of two thout, 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:02.559 some eighteen years after his first faithful meeting with Anne 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:07.120 at a Soho art gallery, law enforcement agents came crashing 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:11.360 through the front doors of Carlos Andrs. Multimillion dollar home. 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:19.200 It's very traumatic. They came actually to wake me up. 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:22.240 It was very early in the morning, at six in 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:24.800 the morning around the time. And then there was the squad. 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:31.800 I was sleeping, My daughter was upstairs sleeping. She was 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:34.679 supposed to go to Spain the next day or that 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:42.240 day day evening. And they knocked at the door and 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:44.800 they told me that they were the police and opened 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:50.079 the door. And I saw them, you know, with their weapons, 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:53.959 and and I said, can I put something on it? 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:57.640 And they say, opened it, opened it. Or else. Of 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:00.400 course I opened the door, I saw the I'm drawn 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:04.480 in all over my house when they were with the 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:15.520 way pons pointing everywhere. Uh, and then they took me 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:19.400 and I wanted to give a hat to my daughter, 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:25.040 so they didn't let me. Oh, so it was horrible. 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:34.560 We'll be back in a minute. Brian Scarlatto's fear as 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:37.719 attorney and family friend took the call while out of 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:41.360 town on a work trip. I recalled because I was 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:44.160 in Las Vegas for work, and my wife called to 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:47.280 say that Glad had been arrested and that there was 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:49.440 a story in the newspaper, which you know, I looked 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:52.319 up on the internet, and um, you know, at this 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:54.560 point had been a friend of ours for a while, 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:56.560 so I felt like I should look into it since 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:58.960 you know, it is kind of my area of the law. 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:02.560 Glafi had just been arrested and so um, we had 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:05.319 to go into jail to speak to her. But what 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:07.960 we found out is is that she had really been 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:10.839 arrested for tax evasion, sort of like al capolm and 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:14.040 the government couldn't get them, you know, for organized crime. 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:16.240 They just followed the money, and in Glafira's case, the 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:20.000 government was able to follow the money. By now, after 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:22.079 living in Sand's Point for years, had you come to 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:25.280 suspect Laphia and Carlos might be art thieves. I did 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:28.440 not suspect anything. They did seem to be very successful. 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:31.800 But it was extremely shocking, and you know, and it's 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:35.040 shocking whenever you hear about anybody being arrested, but certainly 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:38.000 a very nice woman in her you know, later fifties 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:43.120 like Fra Brian visited Glafira in prison soon after her arrest. 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:46.360 It was a sobering moment for the family attorney who 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:50.079 had come to know Carlos and Fia. Well, you go 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:53.360 in and it's very difficult to get in, and Gafa 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:55.199 had just been arrested, and in fact, she didn't have 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:57.960 enough money for shoes because they take your shoes away 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:00.280 and you need a commissary account then to buy shoes, 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:03.280 and so she was wearing paper slippers and it was 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:05.920 very very distraught, you know, just didn't know what was 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:08.480 going to go on Carlo's head, you know, fled and 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:10.880 so her daughter, her young daughter is on the outside 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:13.560 with no parents, I mean solely was maybe twenty years old, 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:17.640 maybe nineteen years old at this time. It's hard to 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:22.000 overstate just how lucky Glafira was to have such a 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:25.640 family friend who was an experienced attorney at this moment 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:30.600 in her life. After she was arrested, I offered to help, 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:33.280 largely on a pro bono basis, because all of her 0:11:33.280 --> 0:11:37.839 assets had been seized at that point. Basically, what we 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:40.559 were able to do is explained to Glafira how this 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:43.079 was going to play out, that the government had, you know, 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:45.920 a strong case on the tax evasion charges and that 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:51.600 carried very significant penalties. Once behind bars, the first order 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:54.840 of business was for a judge to determine whether Glafira 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:58.800 Rosalee was a flight risk. We put together I thought 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:03.240 a very persuasive ca ace thatfa you know, had dual citizenship, 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:06.520 a boyfriend, with a home into the Dominican Republic, ties 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:10.640 I believe to Spain, foreign bank accounts, a lot of liquidity, 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:13.480 a lot of assets, you know, at the time, and 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:17.000 I'll say it was by no means certain that she 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:20.320 would be detained because on the other side of the coin, 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:23.360 I mean, she's never had a criminal case before. She was, 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:26.959 you know, maybe fifty something, your old woman with a 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:30.520 daughter here in the United States, and so the defense 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:32.800 made an argument, a strong argument that hey, you know, 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:34.920 she's not going to go anywhere. Why would she go anywhere? 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:38.040 She's got all these ties. But thankfully for us, the 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:40.839 judge detained her. And although I can't say for certain, 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:45.120 I would think that being detained would weigh on someone 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:47.959 and make them more likely to want to cooperate and 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:50.960 tell us what really happened. The judge said, no, I'm 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:52.959 going to keep you detained because I think you've you 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:55.960 you are a flight risk, and so you know, if 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:58.319 that was that, she she went back into the m 0:12:58.400 --> 0:12:59.760 c C or the m d C, one of the 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:06.719 two facilities that are used. Well, yeah, you don't want 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:09.040 to be there, trust me. She was not in the 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:11.800 most difficult spot where like the terrorists and Burne made 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:14.439 off go. But no, you don't. You know, you don't 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:16.280 want to spend any time there. If you can, if 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:22.040 you can help it. A few months in prison was 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:25.800 all Glafa needed. The con was over and there was 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:29.480 no one worth protecting. At the cost of sacrificing her freedom, 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:35.920 Gafara decided to cooperate, and she provided information about Carlos 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:39.960 and about Patience, and after it was clear that Glifer 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:42.480 was telling the truth. The government agreed to release her 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:49.520 un bail. Rosales spilled the entire story to investigators. In 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:54.280 September two thirteen, she pled guilty to nine counts, including 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:57.600 one count of money laundering, one count of wire fraud, 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:02.600 and three counts of falsifying income tax returns. She had 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:07.560 pocketed twenty six million dollars and paid no Texas. Despite 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:11.520 her testimony, Fia was facing as much as nine years 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:15.559 in prison. But this was only the bail hearing. The 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:20.480 sentencing would come much later, you know, as we later learned, 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:23.960 because of her cooperation, really only because of her cooperation, 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:28.280 we've got the two burgan Tinos brothers and Psian you know, involved, 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:32.800 and that really broke down the door, okay, to a 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:38.680 wealth of information that only came from her. But as 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:41.760 you know most people know, Py Sian as soon as 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:44.200 he heard that we were on his tail, took off 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:47.400 to China, a country that does not extradite its own nationals. 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:53.160 I'm personally much more upset with the Spanish court's decision 0:14:53.200 --> 0:15:01.680 to non extradite the Bergantino brothers. Amazingly, from a criminal standpoint, 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:06.440 things were looking good for and freedman. If we thought 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:08.760 that we could prove beyond a reasonable doubt to twelve 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:12.480 people that other people knew the aspects of the scheme, 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:15.680 the critical aspects of the scheme, then we would have 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:19.440 brought a case. But you know, you've got to have proof. 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:21.960 You've got to have proof that's admissible in court that 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:25.040 you know someone who was selling the paintings, whether it's 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:28.800 Fa as the consigner or and you also have to 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:31.840 prove that she knows that they are fake. So, you know, 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:35.280 here you're dealing with a situation where a freedman's first 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:38.240 point of contact, Lafia, is lying to her about the provenance. 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:41.520 And again the provenance has elements of it that have 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:44.200 elements of truth. You know, Sorry, it was a real person. 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:47.360 Herbert was a real person. It is actually the case 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:50.000 that a lot of art is found, you know, from 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:53.240 time to time. What we did in this case was 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:56.280 we took it as far as we thought the evidence 0:15:56.320 --> 0:16:05.960 that we had would take it. FA had done her 0:16:06.080 --> 0:16:09.960 part and broken the case wide open for investigators. The 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:13.240 bergen Tino's brothers fled the United States for Spain, a 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:17.520 country beyond the reach of US extradition. The artist patient 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:21.360 Quan hurriedly returned home to China, another country out of 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:25.000 reach from u S authorities. That left only Michael Hammer 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:31.480 and Ann Friedman. Neither would be prosecuted on criminal charges 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:35.760 or simply wasn't enough proof, but both were still subject 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:39.240 to civil suits, where a jury only needed to conclude 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:42.320 that a defendant was more than fifty likely to have 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:48.160 committed a crime. Monetary settlements from civil suits could inflict 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:51.880 their own kind of severe punishment. The fear of such 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:55.520 verdicts had led the Knoedler to settle with Pierre Legrange. 0:16:56.760 --> 0:17:00.400 As for the Souls, their showdown with Ann Eatment and 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:06.440 the Knodler was about to begin. Some three dozen journalists, 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:10.000 including our own Michael Schneyerson, who were bent over their 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:14.360 notepads that day in the classically high ceiling, oak paneled courtroom. 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:19.200 The trial began on a Monday in January two thou sixteen. 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:22.760 The list of names who weren't present in court that 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:27.639 day was almost as interesting as who was. Lafara Rosalee 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:31.960 wasn't there. Having served three months in jail before admitting 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:35.840 her guilt, she was now agonizing over what further sentence 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:38.960 she would have to serve and wondering how she would 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:43.040 come up with eighty million dollars in compensation for her victims. 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:49.960 The Bergen, Tino's brothers were still in Spain, Quan was 0:17:50.040 --> 0:17:55.080 in China, even Michael Hammer was absent in court. Hammer 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:58.400 had not appeared once from behind the Knodler doors since 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:03.640 the gallery closed, nor granted any interviews. But after eighteen 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:07.280 years or so of the forgery ring, Michael Hammer looked 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:10.480 more and more like a key player, no less so 0:18:11.040 --> 0:18:15.240 than Ann Friedman, As much was told in a lawsuit 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:18.080 filed by one of the victims, casino owner Frank for 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:21.200 Tita the Third, who in two thousand eight bought a 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:25.200 fake Rothco for seven point two million dollars. Hammer, the 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:29.000 complaint detailed, knew that Knodler bought the paintings from Rosale's 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:32.400 for shockingly low prices and quickly resold them for enormous 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:38.200 markups for Tita alleged quote. In all, Knoedler resold the 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:41.159 Rosealves paintings for a total of sixty three point eight 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:46.000 million dollars, realizing gross profits of approximately forty eight point 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:50.240 seven million dollars. Hammer, acting on behalf of Notler and 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:53.920 his foundation eight thirty one, saw two of the tens 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:57.240 of millions of dollars in profit be distributed largely to 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:09.840 himself and Ann Friedman through a Friedman and Hammer had 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:12.639 a meeting in the early days of the scandal, and 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:16.800 a handwritten memo survived their talk to surface later in 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:21.560 Fatita's complaint. It was unclear whether the notes were taken 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:25.440 by Freedman or Hammer, but the sentiments were in technicolor 0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:29.639 Discreet sources are my stock and trade. When one of 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:33.240 the comments, don't kill the goose that's laying the golden egg, 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:36.480 went another, and I am not going to change my 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:40.200 way of doing business. If you were not comfortable, step away. 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:49.000 And Friedman was in the courtroom the day the desolas 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:54.000 child began. She sat quietly beside her lawyers, wreathed in 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:57.680 her soft white curls, dressed in black, beige and gray, 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:01.560 saying nothing. As the witnesses began to come forward, she 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:04.760 too would be forced to testify if the trial went 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:10.240 as planned. Luke Nichoas and Freedman's lawyer, had a novel defense. 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:14.520 As it turned out. He argued that thess were responsible 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:19.640 for checking their paintings authenticity themselves. They were, after all, 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:25.160 sophisticated art buyers. By that logic, Nikos suggested the jury 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:28.960 shouldn't blame Noldler for selling the their fake art. The 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:33.120 customers were the ones to blame for buying it. As 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:37.240 for Anne, she was a salesperson, not an expert. They declared. 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:41.280 She was just doing her job, selling paintings and earning 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:46.520 profits for the gallery. Here's Luke Nichos with Anne. I 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:50.200 certainly wanted to believe, but and I looked at the 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:53.440 evidence and where the evidence show and what the evidence 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:55.560 showed to me separate and apart from what Anne was 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:59.600 telling me was emails from a guy like David ann 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:03.360 Fam are the most significant experts and at abstract expressionism. 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:07.119 What did David an Fem say about these works? He 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:09.800 wrote an email in May of two thousand eight to 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:13.280 Jack Flamm from the Dadalist Foundation, and that email said, 0:21:13.280 --> 0:21:16.840 I can't think of any reason to deem this newman 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:21.680 from the Resolves collection. This newman inauthentic. He went on 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:24.679 to say in the same email, I've seen the Krasners, 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:27.280 I've seen the Pollux, the roth Codes, the clients and Stills, 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:33.119 and I believe in these works. Now he acknowledged that 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:36.840 the story was murky acknowledged that the ownership was unknown. 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:39.320 But the reality is I saw an email like that 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:41.520 from David and fam and I thought, if David and 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:44.399 fem saying that, who am I the lawyer without this expertise? 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:48.159 Let me dig further. I think it's important to understand 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:51.760 what I concluded about whether they were authentic or not. 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:55.119 Wasn't the point. My point is I had no expertise 0:21:55.200 --> 0:21:59.080 in whether they were authentic or not. The core question always, always, 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:03.280 always was what did Ann Friedman believe and what did 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:10.480 she have reason to believe based in the facts. Early 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:14.040 in the trial, attorneys for the plaintiffs presented a fascinating 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:17.320 exhibit to the court, the Doles eight point three million 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:21.280 dollar fake Rothcoe. The thing I remember about it being 0:22:21.359 --> 0:22:24.720 physically in the courtroom the most is that the defendants 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:28.000 immediately wanted a sidebar with the judge because they felt 0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:34.159 that the painting smelled new. This is the dissillis attorneys again. 0:22:35.119 --> 0:22:39.960 I think the issue was, like all artwork that's transported responsibly, 0:22:40.200 --> 0:22:43.119 it was in a wooden crate, so the wood was 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:46.200 just secured with screws, and the crate got unscrewed, and 0:22:46.280 --> 0:22:48.920 it creates that kind of wood smell in the air, 0:22:49.880 --> 0:22:55.119 which made the painting smell like fresh wood, and so 0:22:55.359 --> 0:22:58.879 they felt it was prejudicial that the painting would smell 0:22:59.240 --> 0:23:03.720 so obvious we like fresh And the judge had to 0:23:03.800 --> 0:23:07.399 go over the and smell the painting to assess, and 0:23:08.119 --> 0:23:10.119 he was, like he said on the record, he was like, 0:23:10.160 --> 0:23:12.280 I can't believe I'm going over to smell the painting. 0:23:13.520 --> 0:23:16.199 Trudge over. He smelled it, and I think they did 0:23:16.359 --> 0:23:21.520 move it. Yeah, yeah, but they left it out, but 0:23:21.960 --> 0:23:25.320 I thought. I remember it was very dramatic. We carried 0:23:25.440 --> 0:23:28.840 the painting over someplace and you know, there was like 0:23:28.920 --> 0:23:32.399 a hush in the room. Were like a gas because 0:23:33.040 --> 0:23:34.840 people in the art world are so used to such 0:23:34.920 --> 0:23:37.800 delicate handling and white glove handling of works like this, 0:23:37.960 --> 0:23:39.680 and you know it was a fake, so that we 0:23:39.800 --> 0:23:41.720 just picked it up with our bare hands. We were 0:23:41.760 --> 0:23:44.440 not professional. There was the other moment, the funny moment 0:23:44.480 --> 0:23:48.119 with the painting, when Pulkari said on the stand, like, 0:23:48.440 --> 0:23:50.399 I think it's supposed to be the other way, you know, 0:23:50.520 --> 0:23:53.440 like its upside down. Even Stephen Poli was one of 0:23:53.520 --> 0:23:57.760 the two quote unquote experts who Knowler had hired and 0:23:57.880 --> 0:24:00.920 paid to look at some of these works, and when 0:24:00.920 --> 0:24:03.639 he testified about the Rothcoe, he testified that it did 0:24:03.680 --> 0:24:10.920 it couldn't usually tell with Rothco's which weighs up. A 0:24:11.040 --> 0:24:14.119 day or two into the trial, the Doles took the 0:24:14.240 --> 0:24:19.000 stand to tell the story of their fake Rothco. Eleanor 0:24:19.280 --> 0:24:24.800 was emotional, Domenico fierce. Both were heartfelt, taking breaks to 0:24:24.880 --> 0:24:28.160 chat up the press, but they would find themselves subject 0:24:28.240 --> 0:24:31.800 to the occasional bit of snarkiness for bringing rich people's 0:24:31.880 --> 0:24:37.760 problems into the courtroom. With the Doles done on cross examination, 0:24:38.240 --> 0:24:41.920 the trial turned to Ann Friedman's list of eleven experts 0:24:41.960 --> 0:24:46.320 whose names she had used to authenticate her paintings. None 0:24:46.400 --> 0:24:49.200 of the eleven had wished to be on that list. 0:24:50.720 --> 0:24:54.600 What emerged was what we showed that trial with the 0:24:54.680 --> 0:25:00.520 witness testimony, that there were no experts who authenticated the paintings. 0:25:01.080 --> 0:25:04.080 For another, it just didn't happen. You know. The story 0:25:04.320 --> 0:25:06.800 that the defendants were selling that they believe the works 0:25:06.840 --> 0:25:10.720 were real and the experts authenticated, that was just absolutely rebutted, 0:25:11.119 --> 0:25:16.240 totally debunked. With respect to David Ampham, he never was 0:25:16.400 --> 0:25:22.320 shown a Rothco despite being the world's leading expert in 0:25:22.480 --> 0:25:24.680 Rothko I don't think it's a coincidence that he was 0:25:24.720 --> 0:25:29.400 never shown any the rathcos not one. Not only had 0:25:29.480 --> 0:25:33.560 I not seen the Disoli painting, I'd never even been 0:25:33.600 --> 0:25:37.320 in the same moon with it. What I got was 0:25:37.600 --> 0:25:42.200 a package with a transparencive a painting, a note for 0:25:42.400 --> 0:25:47.359 man dated July and pretty so this was two thousand 0:25:47.400 --> 0:25:51.600 and five. I picked it up, looks at the transparencies 0:25:51.640 --> 0:25:54.240 were about twenty seconds, and put it in the file, 0:25:54.800 --> 0:25:57.200 filed it away and did not look at it again 0:25:57.400 --> 0:26:01.560 until then. That's the time of the drial. It sounds 0:26:01.600 --> 0:26:05.640