Eric Spoutz Sentenced for $1.45M Art Forgery Scam

Eric Ian Hornak Spoutz, a 33-year-old from Mount Clemens, Michigan, is headed to federal prison for 41 months after defrauding art collectors of $1,450,000 through a sprawling forgery scheme involving fake masterpieces attributed to Willem De Kooning, Franz Kline, and Joan Mitchell. Spoutz, who also used the aliases “Robert Chad Smith,” “John Goodman,” and “James Sinclair,” peddled dozens of counterfeit works for over a decade, leaving a trail of forged documents, stolen identities, and shattered trust in the art world.

U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan handed down the sentence in Manhattan, where Spoutz was convicted on wire fraud charges tied to his elaborate deception. According to prosecutors, Spoutz didn’t just sell fake art—he built entire fictional provenances, complete with forged bills of sale, inheritance letters, and correspondence from deceased attorneys. These fakes were designed to convince collectors the works were genuine, with prices to match. Instead, buyers received nothing but lies and worthless canvases.

Preet Bharara, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, slammed Spoutz for turning fraud into a career. “Eric Spoutz made a lucrative ‘career’ selling forged art as originals from American masters like De Kooning, Kline and Mitchell,” Bharara said. “From creating fake documents to assuming new identities, Spoutz used the full palette of deception to complete his decade-long work of fraud, swindling art collectors out of more than a million dollars.”

Investigators uncovered glaring flaws in Spoutz’s web of lies. Many of the fake transactions occurred before he was even born. The addresses listed on forged letters never existed. The same typewriter font—distinct and consistent—appeared across documents supposedly generated by different galleries decades apart. One letter used as a model was traced to a private university archive, lifted straight from correspondence by a real attorney whose identity Spoutz had stolen to fabricate an inheritance story.

Spoutz first drew public suspicion in 2005, but instead of stopping, he adapted—selling under aliases and doubling down on the con. He hawked his forgeries through auction houses and even eBay, laundering fakes through legitimate channels. Over ten years, he pulled in at least $1,450,000 from unsuspecting collectors who believed they were acquiring priceless American art.

In addition to prison, Spoutz was sentenced to three years of supervised release. Judge Kaplan also ordered him to forfeit $1,450,000 in ill-gotten gains and pay $154,100 in restitution. The FBI’s Art Crime Team played a crucial role in unraveling the scheme, and the case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew C. Adams of the Money Laundering and Asset Forfeiture Unit. The verdict sends a message: in the high-stakes world of fine art, fraud won’t hang on the wall forever.