Charges Against President Of Park Avenue Art Gallery For Defrauding Art Dealers And Collectors

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/manhattan-us-attorney-announces-charges-against-president-park-avenue-art-gallery

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Southern District of New York

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, December 15, 2017

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Charges Against President Of Park Avenue Art Gallery In Manhattan For Defrauding Art Dealers And Collectors Of Valuable Artwork And Millions Of Dollars

Gallery President Defrauded Art Dealers into Sending Him Money and Artwork Worth Millions of Dollars

Joon H. Kim, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and William F. Sweeney Jr., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Division (“FBI”), announced today the unsealing of a complaint charging EZRA CHOWAIKI with fraud and transportation of stolen property for using his art gallery located on Park Avenue in Manhattan to defraud art dealers and collectors of millions of dollars. EZRA CHOWAIKI surrendered this morning to FBI agents and will be presented before Magistrate Judge Katharine H. Parker this afternoon.
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Until November 2017, EZRA CHOWAIKI was the president and the minority owner of a private art gallery located on Park Avenue in New York, New York (the “Gallery”). CHOWAIKI founded the Gallery in or about 2004, and since that time, CHOWAIKI has used the Gallery to facilitate the purchase, sale, and consignment of works of fine art, as well as for the hosting of various art exhibitions featuring works of art and sculptures by well-known artists such as Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, and others. CHOWAIKI lost control of the Gallery in or about November 2017 when the Gallery filed for bankruptcy and was taken over by a trustee to oversee its liquidation.

Between at least in or about 2015 and 2017, through the Gallery, CHOWAIKI engaged in a scheme to deceive other dealers and collectors of fine artwork into sending him money or valuable artwork under the false pretenses that CHOWAIKI would engage in legitimate transactions such as the purchase, sale, or consignment of those artworks. In truth, however, CHOWAIKI did not, and often could not, conduct the transactions as promised, and instead kept funds and artwork for himself and the Gallery, or sold them to others both in and outside the United States, without authorization.

For example, a number of victims reported being asked by CHOWAIKI to invest money to purchase artwork through the Gallery that would then be sold by the Gallery, thereby generating profit for the investors. After a number of these investors sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to CHOWAIKI, CHOWAIKI did not use the funds to purchase the artwork, nor did he return the money to the investors. Similarly, other victims reported consigning artwork to CHOWAIKI for sale by the Gallery. After these victims attempted to cancel the consignments, CHOWAIKI refused to return the artwork and, in some cases, purported to sell the artwork to other galleries and auctioneers located in the United States and abroad with the authorization of the work’s rightful owner.

At the time the Gallery filed for bankruptcy and CHOWAIKI was removed as president, the Gallery purported to have only approximately $276,681 in assets, whereas the Gallery owed at least approximately $11.8 million in claims to dozens of art dealers and others, including those who had sent money to the Gallery to buy artwork or who had consigned artwork to the Gallery that was never returned.
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