All language subtitles for American Greed s06e07 Fine Art A Portrait Of Fraud

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.