Woman in fake art scam gets 7 years in prison

[April 20, 2010]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A woman who sold $20 million in phony art to more than 10,000 people on her television show has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison.

Prosecutors in Los Angeles announced the sentence Tuesday for Kristine Eubanks on counts of conspiracy and tax evasion. Eubanks and her husband, Gerald Sullivan, conducted an art auction show twice a week on DirecTV and The Dish Network from 2002 to 2006.

U.S. attorney's spokesman Thom Mrozek says they sold fake and forged art and would sign the art with names such as Picasso, Dali and Chagall.

Sullivan will be sentenced in May after earlier pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property. He faces a maximum sentence of six years in federal prison.

[Associated Press]

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