A South Florida art dealer will serve nearly four years in federal prison for a fake Andy Warhol scheme and must repay almost $2.6 million earned from the fraud.
The Associated Press reported that Leslie Howard Roberts, 63, was sentenced this month in Miami federal court after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Roberts owned the Miami Fine Art Gallery in Coconut Grove. Prosecutors said he sold art he falsely presented as original pieces by Andy Warhol, the pop artist long tied to the 1960s art scene.
He must pay back nearly $2.6 million from the scheme. He was arrested in April 2025.
Court records show Roberts told buyers the works were genuine Warhols. He claimed he got them straight from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and handed over fake invoices to back the story.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason Reding Quiñones put the harm in plain terms.
"He exploited the trust that collectors place in art dealers and the authenticity of the works they purchase,"
Quiñones said.
That trust is the product. Collectors pay premium prices because they believe the dealer, the paperwork, and the provenance. When those are forged, the market becomes a trap for honest buyers.
Investigators said Carlos Rodriguez Melendez helped hide the forgeries. He posed as an employee of a New York-based auction company and falsely authenticated the artwork so buyers would not spot the fake.
Rodriguez Melendez pleaded guilty last year to the same conspiracy charge. He received probation.
Roberts drew the harder sentence: three years and 10 months behind bars, plus restitution measured in the millions. The gap between probation and nearly four years in prison tracks the difference between a supporting role and the dealer who ran the gallery and the sales pitch.
Roberts is not the only South Florida dealer caught selling fake Warhols. In 2023, Daniel Elie Bouaziz, who owned two galleries in Palm Beach County, was sentenced to two years and three months in federal prison.
Bouaziz pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering. Prosecutors dropped 16 other counts tied to fraud and embezzlement under that plea deal.
Separate cases. Same region. Same famous name used as bait. The pattern is simple: Warhol’s market value invites forgers, and soft paperwork invites the sale. Federal prosecutors in Miami have now put two dealers on the record for it.
Andy Warhol’s work still commands big money decades after his peak. That demand is exactly why authentication rules, invoices, and dealer integrity matter. When a gallery owner invents foundation paperwork and a fake auction stamp, he is not stretching a gray area. He is running a wire fraud conspiracy against people who paid for the real thing.
Roberts pleaded guilty. The court ordered prison time and nearly $2.6 million back to the victims of the scheme. Rodriguez Melendez’s probation sentence closed his part of the case. The foundation’s name was used without the art ever coming from it.
Open questions remain on how many pieces changed hands, which works were sold, and over what span of time. What is settled is the charge, the plea, the sentence, and the restitution order from Miami federal court.
Art markets run on reputation and proof. When dealers fake both, prison and full repayment are the right answer, not a slap on the wrist and a shrug.
