Opinion ID: 726055
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Counts 1-3: Substantive Mail Fraud Convictions for Sales to the Government Agents

Text: 51 Kathryn and Sarina were also convicted of mail fraud in connection with their transactions with the government agents, Leung and Hang. 7 Although the evidence on these counts is more tenuous, it also suffices to support their convictions. 52 Again, the Amiels do not contest the second or third prong of the mail fraud statute--they used the mails in furtherance of sales to Leung and Hang. They claim that the evidence does not suffice to prove the existence of a scheme to defraud. We disagree. 53 Under the guise of an investor interested in purchasing authentic works of art, Leung met with Kathryn or Sarina on four occasions and purchased numerous works of purportedly authentic art. The vast majority of these works were deemed fake by the experts called at trial. 54 When the Amiels' Island Park Warehouse was raided, it contained stacks of the very prints the Amiels had sold to the undercover agents, some signed, some unsigned. For example, the warehouse contained fifty copies of Chagall's Monumental Works, four of which were signed and numbered, forty-six of which were unsigned and unnumbered. The Amiels had sold Leung a signed copy and provided a certificate of authenticity. The warehouse contained 221 copies of Dali's Jaust, five of which were signed and unnumbered, 216 of which were unsigned and unnumbered. Leung had also received a certificate of authenticity in connection with this signed work. And the warehouse contained 252 copies of Miro's Symphony--Sala Pelaires, one of which was signed and numbered, sixteen of which were signed and unnumbered, and 235 of which were unsigned and unnumbered. The Amiels sold this work to Leung in signed form, and provided Leung with a certificate of authenticity. 55 When considered in conjunction with other evidence provided at trial, this information suffices to support an inference that the Amiels knowingly and fraudulently sold unauthentic art to Leung. First, according to the experts at trial, most of the art sold to Leung was, in fact, fake. There was extensive testimony that the Amiels' customarily signed artists' names to prints. And, there was testimony indicating that the Amiels waited to sign forged prints until just before selling them so that, if they were raided, they could claim that they planned on selling the stacks of forgeries as unsigned prints. Given the plentiful unsigned warehouse supply of many of the prints the Amiels sold to Leung, the jury could have inferred that someone in the Amiel family (likely Sarina) signed the prints that were sold to Leung. The posting of a certificate of authenticity for such a work could properly be found to constitute mail fraud. 56