California man admits to selling fake Basquiat paintings in fraudulent scheme.
Michael Barzman, a former auctioneer, has pleaded guilty to selling fake Jean Michel-Basquiat paintings, which he and another man created and sold on eBay and through Barzman's auction business. Barzman admitted to lying about the origin of the paintings and falsely attributing them to a well-known screenwriter's storage unit. The fake artwork made its way to an exhibit in the Orlando Museum of Art, where the FBI seized 25 of the counterfeit pieces. Making false statements to a government agency carries a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.