Opinion ID: 726055
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Art Distributors

Text: 9 Philip Coffaro, an art dealer, testified pursuant to a cooperation agreement with the government. Coffaro began purchasing artwork from Leon Amiel on a regular basis in 1979. Initially, Coffaro believed that the works he purchased from Leon Amiel were authentic. However, within approximately two years Coffaro concluded that the artwork he obtained from Leon was no good, based on criteria such as the quantity of the material available, its color, and the paper. Nevertheless, Coffaro continued to purchase artwork from the Amiels. 10 Coffaro told the jury that he had seen works of art being printed at the Amiels' Secaucus facility, and had later purchased these prints as limited edition lithographs. Leon once told Coffaro that he purchased some of his counterfeits in Europe. On one occasion, Coffaro had seen Leon fraudulently sign and number pieces of artwork created at his Secaucus facility. Leon also instructed Coffaro on how to place fake edition numbers on the fake prints so as to avoid detection. 11 The jury also heard replayed a consensually-recorded telephone conversation between Coffaro and another of the defendants' distributors, Zabrin. 3 During that conversation, Coffaro explained to Zabrin that Leon Amiel purposefully kept his inventory of fake prints in an unsigned state, forging the signatures of the artist only when orders were placed. This way, in the event he was discovered, he could explain that he was simply selling the prints as unsigned posters. 12 Coffaro presented evidence indicating that the defendants continued to fraudulently distribute fake prints following Leon's death. Coffaro described a meeting, after Leon's death, with Hilda, Joanne, and Kathryn, to discuss Coffaro's prerequisites for doing business with them. He complained to the Amiels that the quality of their artwork was downgrading. He wanted a guarantee that the material he got from them would be clear. No ink stains. Dimensions ... correct, etcetera, etcetera. Hilda told Coffaro that they had already taken care of most of that in Secaucus, and the material was looked at and everything that looked bad was thrown out. She also promised him a letter verifying the authenticity of prints he purchased. 13 Coffaro continued to purchase purportedly limited edition, hand-signed prints from the defendants. He placed orders, often over the telephone, with Hilda, Kathryn, or, on occasion, Joanne. In keeping with the course of dealing he established with Leon, the prints Coffaro purchased were usually pencil-signed by the purported artist, but not numbered. 14 However, Coffaro continued to be dissatisfied with the quality of the work he received from the Amiels. In particular, he was having problems with the signatures, which Zabrin told him looked child like and were horrible. On one occasion, when Coffaro complained to Kathryn about the poor signature quality, she assured him that the signatures would be better when Sarina returned from college. On another occasion, Coffaro received a group of prints purportedly by Calder that were so bad that [he] didn't even want to show them to people. When he confronted Hilda and Kathryn with this problem, Kathryn told him look, I know the Calders are terrible, my mother had my uncle signing them, but Sarina will be coming home soon and they will be better. 15 Coffaro testified that he falsely represented the works he purchased from the Amiels as genuine when he sold them, thereby defrauding the public. 16 Thomas Wallace, an art dealer and a retired New York City police officer, also testified pursuant to a cooperation agreement with the government. Like Coffaro, Wallace purchased purportedly limited-edition, hand-signed prints from Leon that he knew to be counterfeit. Like Coffaro, he also provided numerous details about Leon Amiel's fraudulent practices. 17 Some time after Leon's death, Wallace met with Hilda, Kathryn, Joanne, and Sarina to discuss his future business dealings with the Amiels. The defendants told Wallace that they would continue selling to him, but Joanne told him that there wouldn't be any certificates of authenticity--that the product would be sold as is, the way her father sold it. Wallace said that this arrangement would be unacceptable, and the matter was left unresolved. 18 Around this time, Wallace also helped the Amiels conduct an inventory of their facility in Secaucus, New Jersey. During the course of the inventory, Wallace saw large quantities of prints, some signed, some unsigned. There were stacks of as many as 100 of a particular print, but only the first one or two had pencil signatures. 19 On one occasion, Wallace purchased 20 pieces from the Amiels, and two of them arrived unsigned. After placing a notation on the back of each print, he returned the two unsigned pieces to Sarina, who told him that she would take care of it. A couple of days later, he picked up the same prints, and they had been signed. 20 Wallace also testified that he represented to the public that the counterfeit artwork he purchased from the Amiels was genuine. 21 A third art dealer, Lawrence Groeger, testified against the Amiels pursuant to a cooperation agreement. Groeger had begun purchasing purportedly limited-edition prints directly from Leon Amiel in early 1988. He knew these works were fraudulent because of the large quantity available. 22 Groeger continued to do business with the Amiels after Leon's death. He met with Kathryn, Joanne, Hilda and Sarina in New York in early 1989. According to his testimony: 23 I was told at that meeting I should do all my ordering through Sarina, and she was in charge of the warehouse, and she knew where the material was, and how to locate it. If I had questions about what was available or not, that I should ask her about that. 24 Also, I was told that Joanne Amiel would be doing the bookkeeping and I was to talk to her about any questions regarding bookkeeping matters. 25 Also at this meeting, Groeger mentioned a problem he was having with the California galleries with which he did business. [A] lot of the galleries were aware of the fact that there were multiple copies of Miro prints available for sale. He explained that this created a lot of suspicion ... regarding the authenticity of the prints. The Amiels assured Groeger that they would protect him in the California market. [T]hey also thought it was a good idea not to put any--many prints on the west coast.Groeger's largest customer, the Upstairs Gallery, was raided by the Los Angeles Police Department in September. Many of the prints that were confiscated had been originally purchased through the Amiels by Groeger. Following the raid, Groeger met with Joanne, Hilda, Kathryn, and Sarina to ask for their assistance. Joanne promised to help Groeger obtain some documentation for the paintings, but never followed through. That October, Groeger was raided by the police, who seized 60 pieces of inventory, as well as a package of prints that Groeger had planned to send back to the Amiels. All of this artwork was determined to be fake.