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April 16, 2008

Art dealer who escaped from prison is going back

PROVIDENCE -- New Jersey is the next destination for Rocco P. DeSimone, the Johnston art dealer charged with escaping from a minimum-security prison in that state after he was convicted of tax evasion.

DeSimone today waived the right to hearings that could have kept him in Rhode Island, at least temporarily. His lawyer, Kevin Bristow, told Magistrate Judge Lincoln D. Almond that DeSimone would request a preliminary hearing once he is returned to the jurisdiction of the federal courts in New Jersey.

DeSimone, who remained silent except to say, “Yes, your honor” when questioned by Almond, could have asked the judge to conduct a hearing in Rhode Island, although it was not certain that such a request would have been granted.

A jury convicted DeSimone of tax evasion in 2005 after a trial that produced testimony about famous works of art worth large sums of money. The jury however acquitted him on charges of cheating a New York art dealer.

He was within nine months of completing a prison sentence when, authorities said, he walked away on March 15 from the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, N.J. If he is convicted of escaping, he could get a prison sentence of up to five years, and be fined up to $250,000. He surrendered after five days of freedom.

-- Journal staff writer Thomas J. Morgan

His wife, Gail DeSimone, has been charged with harboring a fugitive for allegedly helping her husband escape. She has been ordered held in home confinement at the couple’s house, at 103 Hopkins Ave., Johnston.

Federal authorities have said that Gail DeSimone flew to Philadelphia, 50 miles from the prison, rented a car, picked her husband up and drove him to Connecticut.

Prosecutors presented evidence in a trial in March 2005 indicating that Rocco DeSimone in 1999 had brokered the sale of three paintings for $8.3 million: Canal at Zaandam, by Claude Monet, for $4.65 million; Les Mouettes, by Henri Matisse, for $650,000; and Jeune Fille Blonde, by Pierre Auguste Renoir, for $3 million.

Prosecutors said that DeSimone told Janet Traeger Salz, the New York owner of Canal at Zaandam, that he had instead sold the painting for $2.7 million, pocketing most of the difference. Yet on his 1999 tax return, DeSimone reported only $1 million of that income.

The government also said DeSimone falsely claimed the $1 million as a long-term capital gain rather than ordinary income, which is taxed at a higher rate.

DeSimone was sentenced to 27 months in prison after that trial.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 3:55 PM | Permalink

April 16, 2008

Art dealer who escaped from prison is going back

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