A Miami art dealer has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison after admitting to selling forged Andy Warhol artwork. Leslie Roberts, 62, was sentenced to three years and 10 months in federal prison on 2 October by US district judge Roy Altman.
Roberts was also ordered to repay $2.6 million stolen through his scheme, which involved artwork falsely attributed to Andy Warhol. The US justice department stated that Roberts created fraudulent invoices, authentication documents, and counterfeit stamps to deceive buyers.
He sold the fake artworks through his Miami art gallery, claiming they were acquired from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Roberts pleaded guilty in June to conspiring to commit wire fraud. An accomplice, Carlos Rodriguez Melendez, who posed as an auction company employee to falsely authenticate the work, also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.