[CPProt.net] MOST ARTFUL DODGE; British art collector has made fools of the feds. FBI probe described as lazy and shoddy

[MusSecNetworkCulPropProtNet]

  A MOST ARTFUL DODGE; British art collector has made fools of the feds

By DAVID HAFETZ and CARL CAMPANILE

A British art collector has made fools of the feds.

Jonathan Leaver staged the theft of a famous painting outside a Manhattan
strip club in 1993, authorities charged, but he beat the rap by beating the
clock.

After a decade-long game of hide and seek with Leaver, who fled the country,
the feds finally found him on a layover in Hawaii last July.

But Manhattan Judge Shira Scheindlin stunned prosecutors by dismissing the
fraud charges, saying the legal deadline had lapsed to prosecute him on a
1998 indictment, and describing the FBI probe as lazy and shoddy.

Leaver, 58, a Park Avenue resident for many years, fled New York for Europe
after his bankers and insurers suspected his claim on a $1.2 million
painting, "A Portrait of the Artist's Wife" by 20th- century modernist
Alberto Giacometti, was a hoax.

He had told his insurance company that the portrait was stolen from the
trunk of his Saab while parked outside Scores nightclub.

Leaver was having financial problems and had defaulted on a loan, secured by
seven paintings, authorities said.

Leaver returned to his native Britain and immediately declared bankruptcy.
The FBI searched for Leaver in Britain. But they didn't realize he had moved
to France.

In her little-noticed ruling last month, Scheindlin said the feds "sat back
and waited passively for Leaver to turn up."

She wrote that Leaver apparently didn't know about his 1998 indictment, but
suspected he was under criminal investigation. Still, the judge said, he
lived in plain sight with his girlfriend in London and later in a posh
village in southern France. He used a credit card in his name and left
forwarding addresses at post offices.

"Leaver lived openly, making no unusual effort to avoid giving his name and
address to businesses and governmental authorities," the judge wrote.

An FBI spokesman said, "We respectfully disagree with the judge's decision."

A lawyer for Leaver did not return calls.

Leaver was arrested when authorities, following tightened post-9/11 security
measures, found he had an outstanding arrest warrant.

The whereabouts of Leaver's Giacometti remain unclear.

According to an FBI agent's statement, Leaver told a witness that he had
stolen the painting himself so he could use the insurance proceeds to pay
off a bank loan. 

http://www.nypost.com/