Court filings from The Supreme Court of the State of New York made available on August 24 reveal the magnitude of the accusations against disgraced New York art adviser Lisa Schiff. Schiff, who has shut her business, SFA Advisory in May 2023, after two longtime clients accused her of defrauding them of sales proceeds, was taken to court last December by collectors Candace Carmel Barasch, lawyer Richard Grossman and his spouse. Schiff brokered the sale of a $2.5 million Adrian Ghenie painting owned by the four, and failed to deliver the remaining fund totalling $1.8 million after taking a 10% commission fee, and making two $225,000 payments to Barasch and Grossman.
In the lawsuit filed at the New York Supreme Court, Barasch and Grossman accused Schiff of running a Ponzi scheme in which proceeds provided by Schiff’s clients were used to ‘fund Schiff’s lavish lifestyle, cover debts [Schiff] owed to other clients, or to consummate art purchases for other clients of [Schiff’s]’, according to a court document.
The court documents now show that apart from the initial claim made by Barasch and Grossman, there are numerous other claimants who allege that they were defrauded by Schiff for sums ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to many millions. The suit also mentions multiple debts to the United States government, from IRS claims to state taxes, which will be prioritised ahead of the art collectors in case sums are returned. No petition for bankruptcy has been made.
