eBay seller of fake artwork again upsets the auction site

TwistedMetal · Mar 1, 2004, 08:04 AM

"Kenneth Walton, who pleaded guilty in 2001 to federal wire and mail fraud charges for trying to sell a fake Richard Diebenkorn painting on eBay for $135,000 in a shill-bidding scam, has run afoul of eBay again."

"This time, though, it was not the authorities that did him in. It was his mom, albeit unintentionally.

Walton has yet to be sentenced in the shill-bidding case, in which he arranged with his co-defendants to artificially inflate the price of the fake painting with a series of bids intended to stimulate interest. He agreed in a plea bargain in 2001 to abstain from personal involvement in online auctions--a pledge he has fulfilled, according to his lawyer, Harold Rosenthal.

At around the time Walton was charged in the bidding case, he had started a business called HammerTap, which sold software allowing eBay auctioneers to manage their sales. He registered his company's Web site in his mother's name, and otherwise kept the site's management anonymous, issuing press releases that quoted only an unnamed company spokesman."

Full article: c|net News

Mar 1, 2004, 08:04 AM	#1
TwistedMetal MC John-117 Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Phoenix, Arizona Posts: 728 Rep Power: 0	eBay seller of fake artwork again upsets the auction site "Kenneth Walton, who pleaded guilty in 2001 to federal wire and mail fraud charges for trying to sell a fake Richard Diebenkorn painting on eBay for $135,000 in a shill-bidding scam, has run afoul of eBay again." "This time, though, it was not the authorities that did him in. It was his mom, albeit unintentionally. Walton has yet to be sentenced in the shill-bidding case, in which he arranged with his co-defendants to artificially inflate the price of the fake painting with a series of bids intended to stimulate interest. He agreed in a plea bargain in 2001 to abstain from personal involvement in online auctions--a pledge he has fulfilled, according to his lawyer, Harold Rosenthal. At around the time Walton was charged in the bidding case, he had started a business called HammerTap, which sold software allowing eBay auctioneers to manage their sales. He registered his company's Web site in his mother's name, and otherwise kept the site's management anonymous, issuing press releases that quoted only an unnamed company spokesman." Full article: c\|net News