[CPProt.net] STLtoday article: ‘Sheik’ no; art fraud? guilty from silverb410 at hotmail.com

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‘Sheik’  no; art  fraud?  guilty
By Peter Shinkle</A>
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH


Below is the link to the story.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/0B9F4CAFE289E87F8625709A006BC5C6?OpenDocument

Here is the story.

The man identified himself as a Saudi Arabian sheik. He wasn't.

He said the art he was selling was a painting by the master Rembrandt. It
wasn't.

Prospective buyers claimed to be willing to spend a small fortune to buy
it. They weren't.

Had the deal last year at the Adam's Mark Hotel in downtown St. Louis gone
as Majed A. Ihmoud planned it, he would have tricked those buyers out of
$2.8 million. But during a transaction in which nothing was what it seemed,
the FBI tricked Ihmoud into committing fraud right in front of undercover
agents.

On Thursday, Ihmoud walked into U.S. District Court in St. Louis and
pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit mail fraud. A
naturalized citizen who has lived here for years, he admitted that the
painting offered as Rembrandt's "Man with a Golden Helmet" was bogus.

Ihmoud, 52, of St. Charles, acknowledged in court that he used his
business, called Deals-R-Us, to conspire with others to sell an array of
fakes. Nobody else was named in the case with him, and it was unclear
whether the investigation continues.

He admitted that also in 2004, he sold a set of unique brass doors under
the claim that they formerly belonged to the home of professional boxer
Mohammad Ali. He acknowledged that he mailed bogus documents, intended to
support the claim that the doors belonged to Ali, to Philadelphia. He sold
the doors for $130,000 on July 9, 2004, knowing they were in fact worth
only about $10,000.

Court documents do not identify the buyer in that scam, who made an initial
payment of $1,500.

Ihmoud also tried to profit from other bogus works. In June 2004, he and
unidentified co-conspirators mailed unused, aged canvas from Philadelphia
to St. Louis for the purpose of creating a forgery, according to court
documents. Along with the mailing were sent photos of works by Vincent Van
Gogh and other artists, according to the charges.

That same month, Ihmoud and co-conspirators discussed plans to create a
forgery of Van Gogh's painting, "Vase with Gladiolas." He also sent artists
to study paintings by Van Gogh and other artists at the St. Louis Art
Museum, the charges say.

U.S. attorney Matthew Drake, who prosecuted the case, said the FBI and
other law enforcement agencies never recovered a fake Van Gogh in the case.

Ihmoud's attorney could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Sometime after June 29, 2004, Ihmoud got a "copy print" of "Man with the
Golden Helmet," he admitted. The Dutch master painted the original work
around 1650. It now hangs in a museum in Berlin.

On Aug.12, 2004, Ihmoud went to the Adams Mark, posing as a sheik and a
member of the Saudi royal family. He then proceeded to sell the copy
claiming it was the original painted by Rembrandt.

During later interviews, Ihmoud "admitted his criminal activities" and
expressed remorse for his actions, according to the plea agreement he
signed with prosecutors. He will be sentenced later.

Drake, the prosecutor, said the case was unrelated to charges against
Ihmoud's brother, Walid Ihmoud, one of four men convicted in May on charges
they conspired to burn down four small groceries in St. Louis to try to
collect more than $3.5 million in insurance payments.

[<B>]pshinkle at post-dispatch.com 314-621-5804[</B>]



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