Tribeca Art Advisor to Wealthy Collectors Guilty in $6.5 Million Fraud
A Tribeca-based art advisor has pleaded guilty in a case arising from allegations that she stole more than $6 million dollars from wealthy clients. Lisa Schiff (right), who lives in Tribeca and also operated an office there — as well as outposts in Los Angeles and London — opened her boutique advisory firm, Schiff Fine Art Advisory, in 2002. But her business began to unravel in May, 2023, when multiple clients filed lawsuits alleging they were never paid for valuable art works they had entrusted to her for sale, or that she never bought art pieces they had given her funds to purchase but had pocketed the money instead.
Federal prosecutors say that Ms. Schiff “breached the trust of her art advisory clients by lying to them and diverting millions of dollars her clients had entrusted to her. Instead of using client funds as promised, Schiff used the stolen money to fund a lavish lifestyle.”
Admissions contained in a negotiated plea agreement say that starting in 2018, Ms. Schiff diverted at least 12 clients’ funds, related to 55 high-value works of art worth approximately $6.5 million. For example, court documents state, “when defrauding clients in connection with selling their artwork, Schiff at times lied to clients, claiming she had not sold the artwork, or the buyer was delayed in making the payment and Schiff still had custody of the artwork when, in fact, [she] had sold the artwork, received payment from the buyer, and delivered the artwork to the buyer.”
“When defrauding clients in connection with purchasing artwork on their behalf,” the court filings continue, “Schiff lied to galleries from which she was supposed to purchase artwork on behalf [of] clients, blaming delays in payment on clients when, in fact, clients had already paid her for the purchase of the artwork, but she had diverted the funds for her own use.”
In October, she pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of count of wire fraud (carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison) and agreed to forfeit approximately $6.4 million.
Ms. Schiff’s lawyer, Randy Scott Zelin, says, “my client is a good person who did a bad thing. She has accepted responsibility for what she has done, she’s going to do the best that she can to make amends, and she looks forward to getting on with her life.”
“She has 140 percent remorse,” Mr. Zelin continues. “It’s like she got caught up in a riptide that takes you further and further out. You have every good intention with you when you set foot in the ocean, but sometimes you just end up in that current, and you just can’t find your way back.”