Dealer Douglas Chrismas Ordered to Repay $14.2 M. in California – RisePEI

The Los Angeles artwork supplier Douglas Chrismas has been ordered by a California court docket to repay $14.2 million amid an ongoing chapter case, the Art Newspaper reports. The cash allegedly got here from artwork gross sales, and he had redirected the funds to his private accounts.

Chrismas was famend for giving main skills, together with Ed Ruscha and Michael Heizer, a platform early on at his now defunct Ace Gallery. Extra just lately, a slew of allegations of monetary mismanagement overshadowed his repute. He was repeatedly sued by artists on his roster for withholding funds from gross sales and failing to return unsold artworks.

Ace Gallery filed for chapter in 2013, however Chrismas continued to steer the enterprise till 2016, when a court-ordered reorganization plan positioned chapter trustee and forensic accountant Sam Leslie in cost. (On the time, the gallery ran Beverly Hills and mid-Wilshire branches.)

Whereas sorting by way of the enterprise’s monetary transactions and stock of artworks, Leslie found that between February 2013 and February 2016, Chrismas had diverted round $17 million from the Los Angeles operation to 2 New York-based shell corporations. Based on the report Leslie filed with the court docket in Might 2016, Chrismas additionally had some 60 artworks that had not been accounted for in his chapter trial in a non-public storage facility.

Final July, the disgraced supplier was arrested on charges of embezzlement by FBI brokers in Los Angeles. The indictment accuses Chrismas of redirecting some $265,000 from the chapter property of Ace Gallery to a separate company that he owned. He pleaded not responsible to the costs and was launched on bail. In the meantime, Leslie had opened a civil go well with towards Chrismas over “these diversions of money arising from gross sales of stock,” Leslie’s lawyer instructed the New York Instances in 2021.

On Might 4, the U.S. Central District Courtroom of California dominated in favor of Leslie. The court docket cited the irrefutable proof towards Chrismas, who was ordered to pay $14.2 million in lieu of a trial. Nevertheless, if convicted of all fees in his upcoming legal case, he would face a most sentence of 15 years in federal jail.