Original subtitles

In this episode of American Greed, a televised art auction brings

to the masses. I've got an opening bid at $100.

It was like there was this whole other world taking place behind a curtain that

I didn't even know anything about.

But if a rare Picasso selling for $500 sounds too good to be true... I can't

believe these pieces are going at these prices.

It probably is.

I would be very careful about ever wanting to give my credit card out to

people. It's a picture -perfect scam by a real con artist.

What could be more brazen than doing it on TV?

One, twice, go.

Somewhere in Southern California, more than 700 pieces of art sit piled high

inside a top -secret warehouse.

They appear to be signed works by Picasso, Chagall, Dali, Nero, Rembrandt,

waiting to be sold live on the Fine Art Treasures Gallery.

Televised auction.

I've got a bid at $100. I've got $200.

I've got $300.

Their whole point was just to get the artwork on the air, get these

on the air, and push the bids across the screen and move on to the next one as

quick as possible.

This next piece is called Venus Withdraws, a very, very famous image of

Dali. He actually later on created a sculpture about this piece as well.

Wonderful, very colorful piece. It's signed, and it's an artist's proof,

and gentlemen, so good luck.

Bidding starts at a fraction of the artwork's actual value.

This should be going for ten times its amount.

Today, it's your auction.

Nine, ten, go and watch. Nine, fifteen. It's an opportunity for every middle

-class art lover, not just the upper crust, to invest in their very own

masterwork.

Anytime you have a piece of art.

that starts off bidding at $1 ,000 that you're being told is worth $80 ,000 on

the open market, that's too good to be true.

But for the nearly 10 ,000 bidders who think they're getting the deal of the

century, their impression of Fine Art Treasures Gallery is dead wrong.

There are a lot of people who are sitting at home in their living room

at a fake piece of art and they don't even know it.

And this awesome piece is going.

Going! Go on!

Fine Art Treasures Gallery is the magnum opus of Christine Eubanks, a serial

entrepreneur based in Los Angeles.

But long before the televised auction, Eubanks is just another yuppie hoping to

make it big in showbiz.

Everyone described her as being somebody who was fairly intelligent.

We heard things like she had an Ivy League education.

Eubanks grows up in Chicago, and after college, she moves to New York City to

work for a movie studio's distribution arm.

She was always a competitive salesperson, at least the way she

me. She loved listening to the song Brick House in her car before she'd go

sales meeting at that job.

The competitive saleswoman soon moved to Los Angeles, where she makes a turn

from the movie business to fine art.

Christine would engage in fine art photography as a hobby, and she would

other fine art photographers and learn about other techniques and skills.

And somewhere down the line, she decided, okay, then let's make a

of it.

Former Assistant U .S. Attorney David Willingham says she and her husband,

Gerald Sullivan, opened Finer Image Editions, an art reproduction studio in

1995. She wore the pants in the family. She really controlled the business, and

she really was the one in charge of every aspect of it. And he, Mr.

ran the details, ran the accounts, handled the transactions.

The business sells reproduced artwork to clients like Princess Cruise Lines.

Princess Cruise Lines bought art from Finer Image Edition and sold them to

people who were just, you know, having fun with themselves or the families on

cruises. These are big accounts, and Eubanks is thrilled with the demand for

reproductions, demand that's becoming easier to meet thanks to new technology

like the state -of -the -art Giclay printer.

By 2000, Eubanks' finer image editions is one of only a handful of businesses

using the giclee to reprint artwork.

And Eubanks markets it to the hilt, seeking artists who would like to

their work.

Finer Image had run an ad in the Art Business News, which is a very big

for the industry, about this new process and about how they were printing this

new giclee, lifelike images.

The Chiclay technology catches the attention of 49 -year -old artist John O

'Brien, a rising painter who dreams of becoming a superstar.

This used to be John's art studio, where he spent seven days a week painting.

O 'Brien is having modest success with his Irish landscapes and Parisian street

seeds, and the City of Light holds special significance for him and his

Martha. I met him in the summer of 1989 in Paris on a houseboat underneath the

Eiffel Tower, which is one of those moments that you're never expecting, and

wasn't either. It was just magical.

Martha, a ballet instructor, and her new husband barely eke out a living.

We were living not month to month, but it was tight. You know, we were living

comfortable, but it was tight.

O 'Brien soon catches a break when he lands an agent, and it's not long before

licensing companies come calling.

Soon his work begins to appear on puzzles, wall planks, even oven mitts.

started picking up, and all of a sudden John was making money, and he was

getting recognized, and his artwork was getting into some very prominent homes.

Poster companies also approach O 'Brien, but he's deathly afraid of losing

control.

The puzzles he saw as a wonderful way to get his name out there and to get

people interested in his work and then maybe go to the website to buy an

original painting or an authentic reproduction.

But he didn't like the idea of his work being cheapened.

Eubanks knows that control is everything to an artist, and O 'Brien is no

exception. So she draws up an irresistible offer.

O 'Brien will custom order reproductions directly from finer image editions, and

Christine Eubanks will faithfully manufacture them.

The light had come on, that this was now what we had been waiting for, a sign

that things were going to turn around, that life was good.

Eubanks preys on O 'Brien's artistic sensibility and gains his trust by

quality is most important in the reproduction process.

All he has to do is hand over an original.

And then this is just a sample that they showed him on a little piece of canvas

to get his approval of how brilliant the color is, what it would feel like, the

thickness of the canvas, the quality of the canvas. He was blown away because

his work is so detailed and he's all about color.

And he couldn't believe that the colors just jumped right out so brilliantly.

O 'Brien takes the deal.

And Christine Eubanks now has unlimited access to John O 'Brien's original work,

and she's seeing dollar signs in the reproductions.

Next on American Greed, as O 'Brien's popularity grows, see how Eubanks uses

copying skills to capitalize on his talents.

The only question that we both have was, you don't pull somebody to try to pass

it off as an original.

In 2000, Christine Eubanks has struck gold in the world of art reproduction.

Her company, Finer Image Editions, cuts exclusive reproduction deals with

artists like painter John O 'Brien.

But now Eubanks wants to take it to the next level and mass produce authorized

copies of O 'Brien's original work that she would sell herself.

Instead of just custom ordering for John, they wanted to be on the other end

it, which is let us go ahead and mass produce your work and we'll sell it and

we'll pay you a royalty or a signature fee for every piece that you sign for

Eubanks promises O 'Brien will join the big leagues and be in the company of

millionaire artists like Thomas Kinkade.

That was like, okay, here's our ticket into that circle and get his name out

there big time, get full page ads at Art Business News and attract the collector

who would pay $60 ,000 for one of John's paintings.

But the initial euphoria fades when over the next year, Eubanks' promises prove

worthless. I found these old letters that were written by Christy Eubanks.

Just to all artists, together we will be the best ever.

We never saw a penny that year.

Far from joining the big leagues, the O 'Briens struggle to make ends meet. And

they decide to sell some of John's pieces on eBay.

But when they log in...

They can't believe what they see.

And so then we would go to eBay just to see what other artists were doing, to

see what was on there, and that's when we discovered that somebody else had

already put one of his pieces of artwork up for sale on eBay.

And then there became more and more of them kept popping up.

Posters, prints.

To their horror, unauthorized knockoffs of O 'Brien's work have flooded the

market. I think we were both just in shock.

I mean, just totally, like, how did this happen? And then it just started

happening on a regular basis.

The O 'Briens ordered a piece to try to get some answers.

And then we got ourselves a nice print of John's work.

What was the shocker was the certificate of authenticity signed

not by the artist, which is what the agreement has always been, that John

sign each one approving the piece and then also signing the jaclet, but then

forged signature.

on the piece itself.

The O 'Briens know there's only one person who could be responsible for the

forgeries because only one person had access to the originals, Christine

Eubanks.

It was such easy money. It's just like counterfeiting money.

I mean, you've got a printer.

You type in 100 and push the button print.

You've got 100 images.

Unfortunately, he trusted in the wrong person. Christine Eubanks fooled him

she fooled everybody else and took those images and... stole them in order to

sell them on the market.

But the damage is more widespread than the O 'Briens realize.

Unbeknownst to them, Eubanks is selling unauthorized copies of O 'Brien's work

to corporate clients like Princess Cruise Lines.

O 'Brien soon cuts ties with Eubanks, and he struggles to regain control of

work and support his family of four.

Martha O 'Brien's father comes to their aid and invests in a pricey Giclay

printer. John realized that he was going to have to do it all himself, that he

wasn't going to go into business with anybody else. He wasn't going to send

transparencies out to anybody else. He was going to do everything in -house.

But despite his best efforts, O 'Brien's biggest fear has already come true.

He was furious.

And he felt really, I don't want to say stupid, but...

Why didn't we try harder to prevent this from happening? That question of what

did we do wrong that this could happen, because that was his biggest fear, is to

lose control of that.

So far, Christine Eubanks has successfully scammed artist John O

But she knows she'll make millions more if she can somehow con the art buyers

themselves.

In 2002, Eubanks and her husband, Gerald Sullivan, meet a fast -talking

auctioneer named Jimmy Mobley, an ex -con with a drug problem.

He'd had a lot of exposure to art dealers prior to that and, you know, not

the most savory kind, I guess.

Together, they hatch a diabolical plan to sell massive quantities of bogus and

unauthorized art on live TV.

He introduced her to a lot of these people.

who would sell art and help her get it reproduced, for example.

In exchange for that, and also for being the auctioneer, you're supposed to get

a cut of what came in through the television show.

They give the show a seemingly legitimate name, Fine Art Treasures

And they know that broadcasting on the Dish network and DirecTV will make the

show seem even more incredible.

When you do something on TV...

People want to believe, and in fact they do believe that it's real. So there's

no other better way to hide your scam other than doing it out and in the open.

The stakes are high for Christine Eubanks, who spends at least $50 ,000 to

produce 11 hours of airtime every weekend.

The business model was, whether it's just a dozen people watching or 2 ,000

people watching, the real value of the show was, are we able to sell?

They're making tons of money.

But they had to put that money back in the scheme to keep it going.

Next on American Greed. We're going to start the bidding right now. Fine Art

Treasures Gallery is a tour de force, but buyer beware.

$3 .55 I have going once.

$3 .55 going twice.

Sold at $3 .55.

This is really unbelievable.

In September 2002, Christine Eubanks broadcasts her first episode of Fine Art

Treasures Gallery.

Sexy women and silver -tongued auctioneers move the merchandise, but

closely. There are no art experts.

You may remember Norman Rockwell from his Saturday Night Evening Post magazine

covers. Viewers are led to believe that the lots are authentic artwork by the

original artists, which they say come from estate liquidation sales.

Amazingly, Fine Art Treasures Gallery even sells multiple prints from the same

series of very rare, limited editions.

The chances of a legitimate dealer or any dealer having two actual and

rare pieces of the same series slim to none. That just doesn't happen in the

real world.

Despite these red flags, the calls come pouring in.

It's music to Christine Eubank's ears.

Though sometimes even the calls are fake, a little trick devised by

Jimmy Mobley.

Mr. Mobley would use his cell phone and he would hit the ringing sound near a

mic so that it would sound like people were calling in the show. I'd love to

the phone ring again.

Anybody out there?

And there's another funny thing about the auction.

Everyone's a winner.

If they had two normal people bidding, they would tell both of them that they

actually won the auction and basically print off another piece in order to sell

two pieces.

Congratulations to you on that. Once a bidder's payment is processed, Fine Art

Treasures ships the merchandise.

You had people who were just completely unsophisticated in their knowledge of

the art world getting what should have been an $80 ,000 piece of artwork

to them essentially in a cardboard box.

While Fine Art Treasures Gallery takes off, John and Martha O 'Brien are still

battling Christine Eubanks to get the money they're owed.

But the couple soon learns they have an even more desperate fight on their

hands.

He started getting headaches, really bad headaches. So he was having a hard time

painting. And so he would go to doctors, and the doctors would say things like,

well, it's eye strain.

In April 2004, John O 'Brien's doctor tells the O 'Briens the devastating

It's melanoma.

He has cancer.

They finally had a complete body scan, and we found that it metastasized

everywhere in his body, so it was terminal.

Everything just came to a screeching halt.

At this point, he had no agent.

We had the licensing that was ongoing, so we had the royalty checks, but really

all we were doing was just fighting for his life.

John O 'Brien succumbs to cancer just six months after his diagnosis.

He dies the very same day as his daughter's sixth birthday.

I remember just lying next to him in our bed and holding his hand and letting

him know that it was okay to go.

Because I knew that he was fighting really, really hard. And he died shortly

after that.

And as Martha O 'Brien suffers the greatest loss of her life, Christine

is just raking it in.

Sold! Sold!

Sold! Fine Art Treasures Gallery grosses between $100 ,000 and $250 ,000 each

broadcast. But Eubanks and her husband don't spend lavishly.

Rather, they live in a modest ranch -style home in the low -key Los Angeles

suburb of La Cunada Pool Bridge.

In fact, Eubanks has to work so hard to keep the scam going that the volume of

business is too much for her to handle. So she hires Rona Lopez as her new

office operations manager.

I felt rejuvenated being in there, like, wow, this is a real art place and a

real studio, and there are all these people working.

It's not long before Lopez is producing the televised auction.

She organizes the artwork and handles customer complaints.

They'd say, oh, it was late.

Oh, the frame was chipped. Explain to me the certificate of authenticity, or I

refuse delivery.

A good portion of what we did in the office was trying to resolve these

Christine Eubanks, a true master of spin, paints some pretty artful

explanations.

Someone had claimed that they received a Chagall, and Chagall had misspelled his

name. They immediately called back to Fine Art Treasures Gallery asking, hey,

Chagall misspelled his name, and they had convinced this victim. That happens

once in a while with the artist, and you actually have a more rare item than you

had before, and your deal was even a better deal than you actually got

only a few pieces are there out there where they misspelled their own names,

the person bought it.

Though business is booming, Customer service is becoming a real thorn in

Eubank's side.

She would always tell me that she was barely making a profit. And I took her

word for it that, yeah, this is an expensive business. She would say, this

why I have to fight very hard these credit card complaints.

And fight she did, especially when customers would come to the office

for a refund.

In one case, she grabbed one person and threw them out of the business. In

another instance, the man turned around and she kicked him in the rear. All of

this sort of fit into what we were hearing, that she was very aggressive.

One of our victims, he tried to return some art to the premises.

Christine Eubanks simply locked him out, shut the door on him, and wouldn't take

the art back.

In late 2004, Special Agent Christopher Calarco with the FBI's newly created art

crime team gets several calls about Fine Art Treasures Gallery.

A couple people had complained that they had bought a piece of art for a couple

thousand dollars and then later learned that it was fake.

Agent Calarco also learns that Fine Art Treasures Gallery reaches more than 25

million households across the country.

There was a lot of... Fake art that was circulating in the art market. It wasn't

like it was something I'd never heard before.

But this was the first time I'd heard about a TV show that was selling the

Calarco knows that every weekend that goes by, hundreds of unsuspecting people

could be victimized in their very own living rooms.

Coming up, the feds tune in to Fine Art Treasures Gallery and questions emerge.

Is this a $2 million fraud, $10 million fraud?

What are we dealing with here?

By late 2004, the televised art auction Fine Art Treasures Gallery has been on

the air for more than a year.

It's bringing in millions of dollars for its owner, Christine Eubanks.

But FBI Special Agent Christopher Calarco believes the auction is nothing

than an infomercial for fraudulent art. And he launches an investigation.

When I started kind of getting an idea of the potential scope of the fraud and

how many victims and how much loss there could be, the case took on a sense of

urgency. Agent Calarco does some digging, and he finds that the Better

Bureau has given Fine Art Treasures Gallery an F rating because of customer

complaints. And when he finally sees the show... We were blown away at what we

were seeing.

We are now moving into our Marc Chagall segment. The way the auction looked.

It didn't feel right.

He loved the circus. He loved lovers. The way the auctioneer was calling out

bid. Well, 200 I have. There seemed to be something going on. It didn't seem

legitimate. Sally. 300. Sally also. Thank you. You're watching it, and it

felt grimy, dirty. I would be very careful about ever wanting to give my

card up to these people.

401 going once. 401 going twice.

So.

Agent Calarco's first call is to Detective Don Harisik with the Los

Police Department.

I am the art cop for the city of L .A. Detective Harisik has been working art

fraud cases for more than 20 years, and Fine Art Treasure Gallery is already on

his radar.

I thought it was hokey, but I could see its potential for grabbing an uninformed

buyer out there.

to give them a taste of owning something that may have been signed by the hand

of a modern -day master.

Detective Harizic knows that the intent to defraud can be difficult to prove, so

the team makes undercover buys on the air.

We need to know more than somebody was sold a fake artwork. We need to be able

to show that this business is consciously doing that. They aren't just

something from a supplier, and they don't know anything about the supplier,

that they're just a middle person.

Well, if someone says this was hand -signed, everyone's going to assume that

was hand -signed by the artist. But, you know, someone could always fall back on

the fact that, oh, we didn't say it was signed by Picasso or Chagall. We would

ask questions like, did Picasso really sign that? Yes, Picasso signed the

painting. So clarifying those type of misrepresentations, because people can

kind of wiggle around using words to protect themselves.

Detective Hristic then takes the pieces to experts like Brentwood gallerist

Leslie Sachs.

Sachs has been identifying fakes for Hristic for 15 years.

This is an example of an image that was offered to me of a Picasso oil, and I

looked at the photograph in the book, matched up the details exactly, and came

to a determination that some of the details were not exactly corresponding.

The problematic work has a full stop between the two and the five in the

whereas here it's not visible as a separation.

Investigators know they're dealing with a genuine fraud, but they don't know

who's running the show.

So Agent Calarco goes undercover to Canvas Spinar Treasures' Van Nuys

It's a shrewd investigative move that really pays off.

I was doing some poking around at the businesses.

I was just in the area, walking around, talking to some of the employees, just

acting like I was looking for another address and chatting them up about the

business. And at one point, I actually bumped into Christine Eubanks.

It was in the warehouse, standing over what appeared to be some type of print.

I was asking her for directions, and really I was looking around to see kind

what I could see.

It looked like she may have been signing something at the bottom of the print.

It's one thing to have the word of people who were otherwise involved in

game, but it's another thing to have the investigating agent just walk in and

watch her do it herself.

And the team's findings are confirmed when they get a tip from an insider, a

bookkeeper at Fine Art Treasures Gallery.

She told us everything we needed to know about how the fake scheme worked

internally. The fact that they were buying fake art from several places

the country.

That they were also printing off large amounts of fake art that they would then

ship to the TV studios where they would then sell them live at the auction.

I've got an opening bid at $1 ,000.

And while investigators race to gather enough evidence to make the case, the

show goes on.

Okay, here we go.

Dozens of fake Picassos, Chagalls, and Dollys hit the airwaves.

Some people want this piece.

And the prices keep going up. I am up to $4 ,500 on a piece that would sell in a

gallery for $1 ,000. and thousands and thousands of dollars more because it's

pencil signed. And with each broadcast, more bidders fall victim.

Like Myron Tempchin, a successful engineer and art lover.

We were in a hotel and we're watching the TV and here comes this art auction.

There isn't a lot around these days except people. With its artful

It's easy to see how even savvy collectors like Timption might get

a bidding sequence like this. Ladies and gentlemen, I think you might want to

get in on the bidding.

A hand -signed Picasso piece.

Here comes all of these Picassos, the signed lithos, and so we start.

Just thinking, well, maybe we should bid and see what happens.

You don't want to pass this up. This is like money in the bank.

The dollars are going up and the dollars are going up.

$5 ,200.

$5 ,300.

$5 ,400.

I've got $6 ,000.

The clock is running out.

You want to let it go for $6 ,000?

Then we'll let it go.

She says, do you want to put in one final bid?

Ten seconds to go.

And you say yes. $6 ,000 going twice.

Sold for $6 ,000. Wow, that is just fabulous.

Congratulations on that once -in -a -lifetime win. I won this bid, and I

let me just make sure I understand what this is.

This is a legitimate lithograph. Yes, it's signed by Picasso himself.

Yes, it's an original signature from Picasso.

Yes, there's a certificate of authenticity from a recognized art

Yes. Next on American Greed, Myron Temption wins the bid and Christine

claims another victim.

And then I ask.

If the piece of work isn't what you portray it to be, is it refundable? And

say no.

To see more of Fine Art Treasures Gallery, go to americangreed .cnbc .com.

be right back.

In late November 2005,

Myron Tempchin wins his first Picasso lithograph from Fine Art Treasures

Gallery.

At just $2 ,010, Timption thinks he's getting a real steal.

I think we were excited to think that we could have a lithograph from Picasso,

and then it would be something I think we thought we could, you know, pass down

through the family.

Tempchen gets so caught up in the action that he actually bids on and wins a

second Picasso for $2 ,050.

The bid taker tells Tempchen the pieces will be shipped via FedEx to arrive on

December 1, 2005.

The box shows up, and my wife calls me and says, we've got the first Picasso,

and it looks like a Xerox copy of a piece of work done by Picasso in a semi

-fancy frame.

And the certificate of authenticity?

Wasn't framed. It wasn't in color.

It had no seal on it. It was just something somebody hand scribbled

The certificate also reveals that the lithograph Timption thought he purchased

is really something called a verso.

Evidently, a verso is the front side, the left side or the right side of

a page in a book.

And I think we probably have nicer copies of Potassos in the books in our

art library.

Myron Timpkin knows he's been fooled.

And like any disgruntled customer, he sets out to get his money back.

I have their mailing receipt. They have an address. I'm going to go to the

office. I'm going to bring them back the art and say, give me back my money.

If only it were that easy.

The office address is a short eight -mile drive from Tempchin's home. But

he gets there, something's not right.

I can't find the address because the address turns out to be a mailbox in

one of these walk -in mail stores.

So there is no company. There is no address.

There's a standard answering machine that just runs.

Takes messages and probably nobody responds.

Tempchin scours his receipts for other contact information, and he finds a

number for Christine Eubank's other company, the art reproduction business

Image Editions.

The answering machine voice.

For this other company, it's the same voice of the answering machine. For the

auction house, I looked them up on the Internet, and it turns out that these

guys make what they call museum -quality sea clays. So they are

a fancy copy store.

Jemchin drives to the Van Nuys office, but that, too, is a dead end.

I couldn't get any response from anybody. We don't know anything about

auction. All we do is make these prints and sell them to whoever wants to buy

them.

Demption is more determined than ever to bring these scammers to justice.

And he leaves word for Special Agent Christopher Talarco at the FBI.

About a week later, we get a phone call.

The agent, Chris, says, I'd like to come over.

talk to you. I'd like to look at the art.

It was very shortly after meeting them, I realized that they could be trusted.

And I asked for their discretion and they guaranteed it to me. And they let

take their art. We used their art as one of the pieces that we took to experts

to verify that it was fake.

By 2006, Fine Art Treasures Gallery is more successful than ever, and the

competitor in Christine Eubanks pushes hard to keep the scam going,

micromanaging every aspect of the production.

I heard from witnesses and people that worked there that she was a very

intimidating person.

Many people claim to be afraid of her.

She's somebody that lives inside her own specious logic. She comes up with her

own sort of...

idea of what's right and wrong and how she can justify these things in her

She's a sociopath.

In August, Eubanks hires television director Pat Cardamone to take the helm.

Cardamone has no idea what he's getting himself into.

There weren't enough people in the control room to do the job. And I'm not

really that technical a guy, but the job really involved doing the jobs of about

four or five different people that are generally involved in production.

And with Eubanks in control, the production seems more like controlled

Sometimes I'm too busy coloring the cameras to be able to hear what the

auctioneer is saying. They ask for the clock, and I don't put the clock up. Put

that clock on. Let's go.

Christine would run back and forth between the control room and the sound

At some point, I could hear her yelling.

over my headsets, and I knew it was getting on the air.

And it was either because there was something going wrong on the phones, or

were putting the wrong artwork up, or they couldn't find the next piece that

supposed to go up, or because I was doing something wrong. But as he becomes

more comfortable in the control room, Tartamone suspects that things aren't

they seem.

It did cross my mind towards the end that they might be printing up some of

stuff that we're selling.

I asked her what a state sign meant at one point, and she said, that means that

somebody is authorized by the author's estate to sign these paintings and to

authenticate them. I didn't know that she was the one that was signing the

paintings.

By September 2006, investigators have gathered dozens of pieces of fake

and certificates of authenticity, and they found nearly $4 million in Eubanks'

personal accounts.

When the personal investment accounts were located, there were significant

assets that were directly traceable to the crimes themselves.

Then it was just a matter of putting that on paper and getting the judge to

off on the warrant.

The team finally has enough evidence to secure search warrants for Christine

Eubanks' house and her businesses.

Right around the time of the takedown of this case, it appeared that the

business was operating more efficiently than it ever had.

Wow, what a fabulous deal. Next up.

Next on American Greed, investigators pull the plug on Fine Art Treasures

Gallery.

That pursuit of money, that greed, creates a fog in people where they just

care because all they want is as much money as they can get. And that's when

people make mistakes, and that's where we strike.

September 7, 2006,

Southern California.

More than 60 law enforcement officers await their cue to execute search

on Christine Eubanks' house, her office, and the Fine Art Treasures Gallery

studio. We had to wait to serve the search warrants because at the same time

were serving the search warrants, we were also serving seizure warrants to

freeze bank accounts all throughout the country.

Once Agent successfully frees those accounts, the team moves in on Eubanks'

office. When we came in, we were very shocked and scared.

Not everybody was real cooperative right away.

I immediately found Christine Eubanks, and she was working at the time.

True to form, Eubanks is standoffish, and she lies to Agent Calarco.

Christine Eubanks originally had said that she was not the owner -operator,

she was just an employee.

When I asked her to identify who the owner was, she was evasive and wasn't

cooperating. Eubanks is handcuffed just as Rona Lopez arrives for work.

When I got inside, it was kind of like a real mess.

They were leading Christine out in handcuffs. I tried to look her in the

She wouldn't look me in the eye.

And, you know, I...

It was just all a shock.

Meanwhile, investigators begin the daunting task of sifting through

evidence. We found all the records of the business.

We found all the accounting records, where some of the art was being

from.

We found evidence of certain art that they were making on scene, pieces of

where people were practicing.

signing artists' names. And so you could tell that somebody had been working on

it. The team works overnight to catalog more than 700 pieces of broad -driven

artwork and certificates of authenticity.

We had to set up an assembly line where we're taking pictures of each artwork

that went on hour after hour after hour.

The goods are hauled off to this FBI asset forfeiture warehouse.

Some pieces will be kept as evidence later for other cases as good examples

fraudulent art.

But most of it will actually end up being destroyed because we don't want

ever to hit the marketplace.

And we don't want any more victims to be generated as a result of this

television show.

Christine Eubanks' own husband, Gerald Sullivan, and their former partner,

Mobley, turn against her and cooperate with the government.

In March 2007, Sullivan pleads guilty to several conspiracy charges, including

wire fraud.

He's sentenced to four years in prison.

Mobley pleads guilty to felony conspiracy charges. He gets five years.

And in April 2007, Eubanks pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail

wire fraud, interstate transportation of stolen property, and filing a false

income tax return.

She's sentenced to seven years in prison.

In all, the scam brings in more than $20 million from more than 10 ,000 victims

across the country.

We cut the head off the snake.

Just putting Christine Eubanks in jail couldn't really stop the type of conduct

that was going on, but what it could do was drastically reduce the market for

where those suppliers of fake art could sell their wares.

Once DirecTV and Dish Network learned of the scam, they pulled the show off the

air. Dish Network declined to comment, but DirecTV says, This programming was

brought to us by a third -party broker.

This was an extremely rare case.

We do our best to protect our customers by insisting that companies representing

paid programmers affirm that the producers will conduct their business in

honest and legal manner before we agree to carry their programming.

The government seizes nearly $4 million from bank accounts controlled by Eubanks

and Sullivan.

They had a nice house and a nice neighborhood, but it wasn't Beverly

it certainly wasn't a mansion. They were saving up for a rainy day, it looks

like, when they were going to call it quits.

Director Pat Cardamone still lists Fine Art Treasures Gallery as a credit on his

resume.

Today, he directs televised mass services at his Pasadena Catholic

Working here is my penance.

I enjoy working with good people. I enjoy working with honest people. And

much more comfortable working on that side of the law than working with

Christine.

My redemption never got a real Picasso, but he is ultimately made whole after

losing more than $4 ,000.

I think there's a part of us that are dreamers and we're looking for something

good to happen to us, for our family. So some of us take the risk and some

don't. I took the risk and got scammed.

Since artist John O 'Brien's death, his widow Martha has struggled to regain

control of her husband's work.

I was dealing with motions, motions, motions, and hearings and

depositions and responses and find this document and find that document and

running to lawyer's office. At one point in time, I had ten lawyers in my life.

Ten.

O 'Brien was part of a lawsuit against Princess Cruise Lines, which issued this

statement. We contacted all purchasers of the art to disclose there was a

dispute on authorization of the print edition they purchased, which may

their particular piece, and we offered refunds if the purchasers wished to

return the art.

She is no longer part of the suit. The fight against Eubanks becomes too much

for O 'Brien to handle.

Now she spends her time authenticating her husband's work.

They opened the door, and then once the marketplace was tainted

with the fraud art, and then things became easy to do on the Internet, I

they just paved the way, and they set an example to show how easy it was. To

this day, I feel like I'm still fighting for his life in a different way.

But I'm fighting to keep the legacy true.

If I don't make it right now, my girls will grow up and their dad's art will go

by the wayside. And what could have been the dream that he had will never

happen.