New Jersey father and daughter plead guilty in $2 million art forgery scheme

A New Jersey father and daughter admitted that they turned the art market’s trust signals into a weapon, moving forged paintings through galleries and auction houses in a years-long scheme that brought in at least $2 million.

Erwin Bankowski, 50, and Karolina Bankowska, 26, of Lawrence Township, pleaded guilty in federal court in Brooklyn to wire fraud conspiracy and misrepresentation of Native American-produced goods. Prosecutors said the pair operated from 2020 through 2025, consigning more than 200 counterfeit artworks and marketing them as works by Andy Warhol, Banksy, Pablo Picasso, Richard Mayhew, Raimond Staprans and Fritz Scholder. Authorities said some of the pieces were created by a co-conspirator in Poland, then dressed up with forged provenance records and bogus certificates meant to make them look legitimate.

The scheme depended on a familiar weakness in the high-end art world: paperwork often carries more weight than scrutiny. Prosecutors said the counterfeit works frequently targeted lesser-known pieces by highly prolific artists, a tactic that made the fraud harder to spot and easier to pass along once a name, a stamp or an ownership history appeared to support it. In that environment, reputation can substitute for verification, and forged provenance can move quickly through channels that are supposed to authenticate value.

One of the clearest examples came last October, when DuMouchelles sold a fake purportedly by Richard Mayhew for $160,000. Prosecutors said the fraud touched some of New York City’s most prominent fine art auction houses and galleries, showing how easily counterfeit works can enter the mainstream market when buyers rely on documents and familiar intermediaries instead of direct artist authentication.

The guilty pleas also carry a broader cultural consequence. The charge involving Native American-produced goods reflects the additional harm caused when counterfeiters exploit Indigenous artists and markets, not just wealthy collectors and auction houses. Bankowski and Bankowska face up to 20 years in prison on the wire fraud conspiracy count, a penalty that underscores how seriously federal prosecutors are treating a scam that blurred the line between prestige and proof in one of the world’s most opaque markets.