A father-daughter duo in New Jersey has admitted to selling millions of dollars’ worth of forged art, officials announced this week, including a piece from a celebrated San Francisco painter.
According to a Tuesday news release from the Eastern District of New York’s District Attorney’s Office, Karolina Bankowska, 26, and Erwin Bankowski, 50, conspired to auction 200 counterfeits purportedly made by artists such as Andy Warhol, Banksy, Picasso, Raimonds Staprans, Richard Mayhew and Native American artist Fritz Scholder.
“For years, these defendants painted themselves as purveyors of fine art while selling lies on canvas to unsuspecting collectors,” United States Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said in the release. “Today’s convictions strip away the varnish and reveal the fraud underneath.”
According to officials, from 2020 through 2025, the defendants fabricated the paintings’ provenance — or history of ownership — by forging stamps and claiming the paintings were owned by defunct art galleries, making it difficult for potential buyers to verify them. To make the stamps appear more convincing, the defendants printed them on aged paper from antique books, and around 2021, the duo commissioned an artist in Poland to make the fake paintings with false signatures, legal documents say.
But the scheme unraveled in March 2023, when a representative of Staprans, a famous San Francisco still-life painter and playwright, emailed a gallery selling a fake painting of his and told management that it was counterfeit. Staprans, who was born in Latvia, had been living in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood for decades. Before his death in 2026 at age 99, he provided a signed statement to support his representative’s claims. Regardless, the fake painting sold for about $60,000 just a few days later, court documents show.
Other works sold for tens of thousands of dollars, and in October 2025, a fake Richard Mayhew painting sold for around $160,000. Overall, the elaborate scheme defrauded buyers out of $2 million, the release says.
“These two individuals didn’t just sell counterfeit art — they undermined trust, exploited buyers, and attempted to profit from fraud. In this instance, the FBI with its partners has made it clear that those who manipulate the market for personal gain will be caught and held accountable,” stated FBI Assistant Director James C. Barnacle Jr. in the release.
On Tuesday, Bankowska and Bankowski pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and representing false Native American goods. They face up to 20 years in prison and at least $1.9 million in restitution.