The USA Legal professional’s Workplace for the Center District of Pennsylvania lately introduced the conviction of three members of a multi-heist artwork theft ring that stole sports activities memorabilia, artwork, and different precious gadgets from 20 museums and shops over the course of 20 years.
Nicholas Dombek, 54, of Thornhurst, Pennsylvania; Damien Boland, 48, of Moscow, Pennsylvania; and Joseph Atsus, 48, of Roaring Brook, Pennsylvania, have been convicted on February 7. Their prices included conspiracy to commit theft of main art work, concealment and disposal of main art work, and interstate transportation of stolen property.
The three people have been additionally convicted of “a number of associated substantive offense” after a four-week jury trial.
In response to the US Legal professional’s Workplace, the stolen gadgets included Le Grande Passion by Andy Warhol and Springs Winter by Jackson Pollock, each stolen in 2005 from the Everhart Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and a $500,000 Jasper Cropsey portray that was taken in 2011 from Ringwood Method in New Jersey. The ring additionally stole World Sequence rings, championship belts, trophies, and different objects.
5 further co-conspirators within the artwork theft ring pled responsible and are awaiting sentencing. Former co-defendant Alfred Atsus was acquitted of the three counts in opposition to him at trial.
Final January, Dombek surrendered himself to authorities in Scranton after being pursued for nearly seven months. He was was denied bail by a federal choose following a court docket look.
After the members of the ring stole the focused gadgets, they’d transport the stolen items again to northeastern Pennsylvania, typically to the residence of Dombek, and soften the memorabilia down into simply transportable metallic discs or bars. The conspirators would then promote the uncooked metallic to fences (resellers who knowingly purchase stolen items to resell them for revenue) within the New York Metropolis space for tons of or just a few 1000’s of {dollars}, far lower than what the gadgets have been value.
At one level, Dombek burned the Cropsey portray, Higher Hudson, to keep away from it being recovered by investigators and used as proof in opposition to the members of the artwork theft ring. The press assertion from the US Legal professional’s workplace additionally famous that the “whereabouts of most of the different work and stolen objects are at the moment unknown.”
Sentencing for Dombek, Boland, and Atsus has not but scheduled. The three defendants face a most penalty of 5 years in jail for the conspiracy conviction, 10 years in jail for every further depend of conviction, and a time period of supervised launch following imprisonment, and a wonderful.
The information was first reported by the New York Occasions.
