- Report: #42057
Complaint Review: Michael L. Harrison DBA Evan Carter Gallery Miami Beach Florida - Miami Beach Florida
-
Author Confirmed
Why?
Michael L. Harrison DBA Evan Carter Gallery Miami Beach Florida
Miami Beach, Florida Miami Beach, Florida, U.S.A.
Web:
N/A
Categories:
Business Rating:
(0)
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good?
Michael L. Harrison DBA Evan Carter Gallery ART FRAUD ARREST MADE! con artist ripoff Miami Beach Florida
"Miami Beach man charged in art theft for fake gallery"
Associated Press article, appearing in the January 19, 2003 edition of the Sarasota (Florida) Herald Tribune.
Here is the entire article as it appears:
" MIAMI-- A Miami Beach man has been arrested on charges that he bilked artists around the world out of their paintings, sculptures and photographs, police said.
Michael L. Harrison, 54, was being held Saturday at the Miami-Dade County jail on 45 counts of grand theft and credit card fraud. On probation for an earlier grand theft case, Harrison was denied bail until his January 30 arraignment.
"He did more than steal their art" said Pat Zubriski, 50, of Manitoba, Canada, who runs an online artists' collective and helped gather evidence against Harrison. "He stole their trust, their lives--everything."
Harrison's art scam began several years ago under the name Evan Carter, a Miami Beach gallery owner, police said. Carter began exchanging e-mails with and receiving art from aspiring painters and sculptors around the world.
Carter also said he was a lawyer, police said. He offered to perform some legal work for Zubriski. But Carter made a request that raised Zubriski's eyebrows: He asked her for a $5,000 retainer. Zubriski said she did some checking and found out that Carter wasn't an attorney.
Allegations against Carter flared through the Internet community of artists. Web sites went up denouncing him as a fraud, and e-mails warning each other to steer clear of the man using that name.
Meanwhile, several artists who had signed "contracts" with Carter and had given him their credit card numbers-for contest fees, gallery dues and shipping costs--noticed unfamiliar charges on their bills, police said. Zubriski eventually called Miami Beach police and filed a complaint.
On Jan. 9, investigators drove to the address of Carter's Miami Beach gallery--merely an apartment--knocked on the door and explained they had a package for Evan Carter. The man who signed for the package--later determined to be Harrison--was arrested.
Inside his apartment, investigators said they found dozens of the missing works of art: five statues from a Jordanian sculptor, two dozen prints from a Bulgarian photographer, five paintings from a painter in Arkansas.
Harrison turned out to have a long list of arrests for crimes such as fraud, swindling an inn-keeper, worthless checks and practicing law without a license. He admitted to detectives that he had been operating as Evan Carter and said he owned no galleries, police said.
Most of the works shipped to him have been recovered, but some remain missing--including 11 prints by Martine Genicot, a 45 year old painter in Jersey City, NJ. "As an artist, you struggle,", Genicot said. "Then you have somebody who gives you hope. When it turns out not to be true, it hurts so much. It's just so unfair."
--end of story--
if you are an artist ripped off by this "gallery", contact the Miami Beach police department. See the website www.artcalendar.com in the "forum/schuttlebutt" section for more postings from artists on this fraud operation.
Anon
Sarasota, Florida
U.S.A.
Associated Press article, appearing in the January 19, 2003 edition of the Sarasota (Florida) Herald Tribune.
Here is the entire article as it appears:
" MIAMI-- A Miami Beach man has been arrested on charges that he bilked artists around the world out of their paintings, sculptures and photographs, police said.
Michael L. Harrison, 54, was being held Saturday at the Miami-Dade County jail on 45 counts of grand theft and credit card fraud. On probation for an earlier grand theft case, Harrison was denied bail until his January 30 arraignment.
"He did more than steal their art" said Pat Zubriski, 50, of Manitoba, Canada, who runs an online artists' collective and helped gather evidence against Harrison. "He stole their trust, their lives--everything."
Harrison's art scam began several years ago under the name Evan Carter, a Miami Beach gallery owner, police said. Carter began exchanging e-mails with and receiving art from aspiring painters and sculptors around the world.
Carter also said he was a lawyer, police said. He offered to perform some legal work for Zubriski. But Carter made a request that raised Zubriski's eyebrows: He asked her for a $5,000 retainer. Zubriski said she did some checking and found out that Carter wasn't an attorney.
Allegations against Carter flared through the Internet community of artists. Web sites went up denouncing him as a fraud, and e-mails warning each other to steer clear of the man using that name.
Meanwhile, several artists who had signed "contracts" with Carter and had given him their credit card numbers-for contest fees, gallery dues and shipping costs--noticed unfamiliar charges on their bills, police said. Zubriski eventually called Miami Beach police and filed a complaint.
On Jan. 9, investigators drove to the address of Carter's Miami Beach gallery--merely an apartment--knocked on the door and explained they had a package for Evan Carter. The man who signed for the package--later determined to be Harrison--was arrested.
Inside his apartment, investigators said they found dozens of the missing works of art: five statues from a Jordanian sculptor, two dozen prints from a Bulgarian photographer, five paintings from a painter in Arkansas.
Harrison turned out to have a long list of arrests for crimes such as fraud, swindling an inn-keeper, worthless checks and practicing law without a license. He admitted to detectives that he had been operating as Evan Carter and said he owned no galleries, police said.
Most of the works shipped to him have been recovered, but some remain missing--including 11 prints by Martine Genicot, a 45 year old painter in Jersey City, NJ. "As an artist, you struggle,", Genicot said. "Then you have somebody who gives you hope. When it turns out not to be true, it hurts so much. It's just so unfair."
--end of story--
if you are an artist ripped off by this "gallery", contact the Miami Beach police department. See the website www.artcalendar.com in the "forum/schuttlebutt" section for more postings from artists on this fraud operation.
Anon
Sarasota, Florida
U.S.A.
