A Sands Point art dealer, who faced up to 99 years in jail for executing a $80 million scam selling forged paintings, got off without prison time on Tuesday by saying her abusive boyfriend forced her to cooperate.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla said Glafira Rosales, 60, was forced into the scheme, which caused Manhattan’s historic Knoedler Gallary to close, by her abusive boyfriend, Jose Carlos Bergantinos Diaz, according to court documents.
Rosales received nine months of home confinement. She agreed to forfeit $33.2 million and her Sands Point home, too.
Rosales pleaded guilty in 2013 to money laundering, conspiracy and fraud for the scheme, which lasted over 15 years.
She spent three months in jail before cooperating with the investigation, according to documents.
Most of the forgeries were of modernist painters, such as Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline.
Around 40 paintings were sold to the Knoedler Gallary, which was the city’s oldest art gallery, and closed in 2011.
According to court documents, Diaz physical abused Rosales on multiple occasions and once tried to kill her by choking her before being stopped by their housekeeper.
The scheme began in the 1980s when Diaz met Pei-Shen Qian, the artist who forged the paintings in his home in Queens.
Rosales cooperated with Diaz, his brother, Jesus, and Qian to sell the fake art to galleries in New York City.
Diaz and his brother fled to Spain and were arrested in 2014, but the government’s petitions for extradition were denied, records show.
Qian is a fugitive believed to be living in China.
The forged art was sold through two companies set up and operated by Rosales and Diaz.
From 2006 to 2008, the scheme netted $14,740,000.
According to court documents, Rosales said she no longer wanted to participate in the scheme, but her and her daughter were threatened by Diaz.
In a pre-sentencing letter from Rosales’ lawyer, Brian Skarlatos, to Failla, he wrote, “Glafira has made great attempts to turn her life around by undergoing regular therapy, maintaining employment and futhering her vocational skills in order to support herself as she ages.”
“A prison sentence would be counterproductive in light of these efforts of self-improvement,” the letter reads.
Rosales is working as a busgirl in a Long Island restaurant and living with a friend, court records show.
