Forty-five year old former art dealer Matthew Taylor has been sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison and hefty fines after stealing numerous expensive paintings from Los Angeles Fine Art Gallery and attempting to sell them to private collectors, all under the guise that they were property of his mother.
What a jerk, right? He also blamed his elderly mother for his absurd tax problems. Earlier this year, Taylor was charged with five federal felonies, including wire fraud, possession of stolen property that had crossed state lines, and tax evasion. Prosecution sates:
In short, defendant has demonstrated that he is a con man, a thief, a tax-cheat, and a liar, who has no compunctions about using others (such as his girlfriend) and blaming others (such as his mother or his pretrial officer) if it is to his advantage. He has steadfastly refused to accept responsibility for his crimes, and has repeatedly acknowledged that he moved money around to avoid seizure by the IRS.
A court memo stated that Taylor’s “repeated attempts to blame his mother for his crimes are demonstrative of his history and characteristics.”
He has been ordered to pay a sum of over $1.2 million in restitution to the galleries and the IRS. Of all the art thieves we’ve covered recently, this guy’s the worst. The worst person. Not the worst thief. Never forget “Mr. Retro Spy Man.” (Images: The SOP/Trulia)
