Florida
Art dealer gets nearly 4 years in prison for scheme to sell fake Andy Warhol artworks
MIAMI (AP) — A South Florida art dealer has been sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison for a scheme that involved selling fake Andy Warhol artworks.
Leslie Howard Roberts, 63, was sentenced in Miami federal court this month to three years and 10 months after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He must also pay back nearly $2.6 million that he earned from the scheme.
Roberts, the owner of Miami Fine Art Gallery in Coconut Grove, was arrested in April 2025. According to court records, he fraudulently represented art as original pieces created by renowned artist Andy Warhol. Prosecutors said Roberts falsely claimed that he acquired the artwork directly from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and provided fake and fraudulent invoices.
“He exploited the trust that collectors place in art dealers and the authenticity of the works they purchase,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason Reding Quiñones said in a statement.
As part of the conspiracy, Carlos Rodriguez Melendez posed as an employee of a New York-based auction company and falsely authenticated artwork to conceal that it was forged, investigators said. Rodriguez Melendez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud last year and was sentenced to probation.
Another South Florida art dealer was sentenced in 2023 to two years and three months in federal prison for selling fake Warhols. Daniel Elie Bouaziz, who owned two galleries in Palm Beach County, had pleaded guilty to a single count of money laundering, while prosecutors agreed to drop 16 other counts related to fraud and embezzlement.
Warhol was an American visual artist and filmmaker most associated with the pop art movement of the 1960s.
New York
U.S. businessman whose firm invested in European soccer clubs pleads guilty to fraud
NEW YORK (AP) — An American businessman whose firm invested in several European soccer clubs that struggled under its ownership pleaded guilty to fraud charges Thursday in New York and agreed to pay back $500 million in losses caused by the scheme.
Josh Wander, 45, a co-founder of Miami-based 777 Partners, an investment firm, entered the plea in Manhattan federal court to wire fraud and securities fraud charges.
During the plea, Wander admitted to borrowing money in 2021 and 2022 based on numbers that exaggerated assets.
“At the time that I did these things I knew what I was doing was wrong, and I am deeply sorry for my conduct,” he told Judge J. Paul Oetken.
The judge set sentencing for March 1, when Wander, who will remain free on bail, could face up to 40 years in prison. Wander agreed to pay $500 million in restitution to investors.
Wander’s firm had moved heavily into soccer in 2021, buying stakes in financially distressed clubs recovering from playing in empty stadiums during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company, 777 Partners, owned stakes in an Australian airline plus soccer clubs Hertha Berlin in Germany, Genoa in Italy, Standard Liege in Belgium and Vasco da Gama in Brazil.
In 2024, Wander and 777 failed in their biggest soccer quest, unable to buy nine-time English champion Everton as questions about the business arose as a London-based investor filed a lawsuit in New York.
The 777 story became an example of what can go wrong in the global soccer trend of multi-club ownership — investors taking stakes in several clubs in different countries. European soccer body UEFA has identified the trend as a threat to the integrity of games and the player trading industry worth more than $10 billion each year.
Prosecutors said Wander used 777 Partners to cheat private lenders and investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars by pledging assets that his firm did not own, falsifying bank statements and making other material misrepresentations about the firm’s financial condition.
Arizona
Appeals court blocks start of takeover of healthcare operations in state prisons
PHOENIX (AP) — A federal appeals court has put on hold a court-ordered takeover of healthcare operations in Arizona’s prisons that was scheduled to start Monday.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order late Friday blocking the start date as Arizona corrections officials are appealing the takeover, also known as a receivership.
The court said letting the takeover start risks irreparable harm to the state if it wins the appeal and that the case raises questions about a federal judge’s authority over state prisons.
The court, however, said a receiver — an outside corrections professional hired to run healthcare operations — can still start operational planning for the takeover. But Monday’s scheduled transfer of the healthcare system’s management has been called off.
Over the past 14 years, Arizona has been dogged by complaints that its prison healthcare system was run shoddily and callously and that it repeatedly failed to improve a system found to have exposed prisoners to harm and preventable deaths.
Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver ordered the takeover after concluding the state hadn’t complied with court-ordered changes or the requirements of the U.S. Constitution after more than a decade of litigation. Silver found prisoners remained exposed to grave threats of harm and suffering because of systematic deficiencies in their healthcare.
Attorneys for the state said Silver adopted a drastic takeover remedy without first trying intermediate fixes to speed compliance and hadn’t given the corrections department enough time to make more progress.
California
Ex-OpenAI worker accused of bugging conference room planned to fly to Saudi Arabia, prosecutors say
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A former OpenAI engineer charged with secretly installing a recording device in a conference room to glean company details had been “mere days” away from absconding to Saudi Arabia before his arrest, federal prosecutors said in new court filings.
Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national, was also fired from his job at the ChatGPT maker, according to a government memo filed Sunday. His wife and young son left the country the day after his arrest on a one-way ticket booked and paid for by a Saudi military official, prosecutors said in the filing.
“Ultimately, the defendant has little incentive to remain in the United States to see this case through,” federal prosecutors wrote. “He has ample resources —including his significant compensation from a decade of high-tech employment in the Bay Area and at least two bank accounts in Saudi Arabia — and what appears to be considerable support from a foreign government.”
Prosecutors also noted Saudi Arabia has no extradition treaty with the U.S. as they seek to detain Alfozan until trial. A judge was to consider the request Monday in federal court in San Francisco.
Alfozan’s lawyers didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment ahead of Monday’s hearing.
But in their own court filings, they argued that Alfozan, who had worked at OpenAI since July 2025, had purchased one-way tickets for his family to Saudi Arabia more than two weeks before prosecutors allege the recording devices were installed.
The defense said the couple planned to spend Alfozan’s roughly two-month paternity leave in Saudi Arabia following the birth of their U.S.-citizen son.
Prosecutors say after his arrest, Saudi officials purchased new plane tickets for the wife and son to leave the U.S. sooner than the Oct. 12 flight Alfozan initially booked.
Alfozan’s lawyers also argued that he was on track to become a naturalized U.S. citizen with an interview with federal officials scheduled next month. They said he has been a legal permanent resident since 2020, has lived in the U.S. for 15 years and attended MIT and the University of California, Berkeley.
“This was a long-held dream for the Alfozan family, as it is for so many immigrants,” his lawyers wrote. “His plan was always to return to the Bay Area, where his home, his career, and his community are.”
Rather than remain in federal custody, Alfozan’s lawyers argue he should be confined to his family’s home in the San Francisco suburbs, with GPS monitoring, travel restrictions and a requirement to surrender his passport.
Prosecutors have not said what Alfozan might have wanted to do with the recordings, but say he was in “frequent communication” with a member of the Saudi royal family. They said the royal family member repeatedly tried to recruit Alfozan to an artificial intelligence venture being launched in Saudi Arabia.
Alfozan told the unnamed person in WhatsApp messages that he wouldn’t leave OpenAI until his stock was vested, even as he explored other career opportunities in the Middle Eastern kingdom, prosecutors wrote.
Prosecutors say Alfozan concealed an audio recording device in toilet paper and plugged it into a USB port on the back of a television in an executive conference room he wasn’t authorized to access. They say security cameras captured him entering the room and checking behind the television after installing the device. It remained there for several days before being found Sept. 30.
Prosecutors say the conference room was typically used for meetings involving company leaders, government officials and other executives and “discussions of highly confidential technical, commercial, and strategic information, including proprietary research, as well as nonpublic information.”
OpenAI has said the recording device Alfozan used was sophisticated, designed to evade detection and featured advanced encryption and audio-monitoring capabilities. They also said they had evidence Alfozan planned to place other listening devices elsewhere in the office.
Alfozan has been charged with using or endeavoring to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications. If convicted, he faces a five-year prison sentence.
Art dealer gets nearly 4 years in prison for scheme to sell fake Andy Warhol artworks
MIAMI (AP) — A South Florida art dealer has been sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison for a scheme that involved selling fake Andy Warhol artworks.
Leslie Howard Roberts, 63, was sentenced in Miami federal court this month to three years and 10 months after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He must also pay back nearly $2.6 million that he earned from the scheme.
Roberts, the owner of Miami Fine Art Gallery in Coconut Grove, was arrested in April 2025. According to court records, he fraudulently represented art as original pieces created by renowned artist Andy Warhol. Prosecutors said Roberts falsely claimed that he acquired the artwork directly from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and provided fake and fraudulent invoices.
“He exploited the trust that collectors place in art dealers and the authenticity of the works they purchase,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason Reding Quiñones said in a statement.
As part of the conspiracy, Carlos Rodriguez Melendez posed as an employee of a New York-based auction company and falsely authenticated artwork to conceal that it was forged, investigators said. Rodriguez Melendez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud last year and was sentenced to probation.
Another South Florida art dealer was sentenced in 2023 to two years and three months in federal prison for selling fake Warhols. Daniel Elie Bouaziz, who owned two galleries in Palm Beach County, had pleaded guilty to a single count of money laundering, while prosecutors agreed to drop 16 other counts related to fraud and embezzlement.
Warhol was an American visual artist and filmmaker most associated with the pop art movement of the 1960s.
New York
U.S. businessman whose firm invested in European soccer clubs pleads guilty to fraud
NEW YORK (AP) — An American businessman whose firm invested in several European soccer clubs that struggled under its ownership pleaded guilty to fraud charges Thursday in New York and agreed to pay back $500 million in losses caused by the scheme.
Josh Wander, 45, a co-founder of Miami-based 777 Partners, an investment firm, entered the plea in Manhattan federal court to wire fraud and securities fraud charges.
During the plea, Wander admitted to borrowing money in 2021 and 2022 based on numbers that exaggerated assets.
“At the time that I did these things I knew what I was doing was wrong, and I am deeply sorry for my conduct,” he told Judge J. Paul Oetken.
The judge set sentencing for March 1, when Wander, who will remain free on bail, could face up to 40 years in prison. Wander agreed to pay $500 million in restitution to investors.
Wander’s firm had moved heavily into soccer in 2021, buying stakes in financially distressed clubs recovering from playing in empty stadiums during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company, 777 Partners, owned stakes in an Australian airline plus soccer clubs Hertha Berlin in Germany, Genoa in Italy, Standard Liege in Belgium and Vasco da Gama in Brazil.
In 2024, Wander and 777 failed in their biggest soccer quest, unable to buy nine-time English champion Everton as questions about the business arose as a London-based investor filed a lawsuit in New York.
The 777 story became an example of what can go wrong in the global soccer trend of multi-club ownership — investors taking stakes in several clubs in different countries. European soccer body UEFA has identified the trend as a threat to the integrity of games and the player trading industry worth more than $10 billion each year.
Prosecutors said Wander used 777 Partners to cheat private lenders and investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars by pledging assets that his firm did not own, falsifying bank statements and making other material misrepresentations about the firm’s financial condition.
Arizona
Appeals court blocks start of takeover of healthcare operations in state prisons
PHOENIX (AP) — A federal appeals court has put on hold a court-ordered takeover of healthcare operations in Arizona’s prisons that was scheduled to start Monday.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order late Friday blocking the start date as Arizona corrections officials are appealing the takeover, also known as a receivership.
The court said letting the takeover start risks irreparable harm to the state if it wins the appeal and that the case raises questions about a federal judge’s authority over state prisons.
The court, however, said a receiver — an outside corrections professional hired to run healthcare operations — can still start operational planning for the takeover. But Monday’s scheduled transfer of the healthcare system’s management has been called off.
Over the past 14 years, Arizona has been dogged by complaints that its prison healthcare system was run shoddily and callously and that it repeatedly failed to improve a system found to have exposed prisoners to harm and preventable deaths.
Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver ordered the takeover after concluding the state hadn’t complied with court-ordered changes or the requirements of the U.S. Constitution after more than a decade of litigation. Silver found prisoners remained exposed to grave threats of harm and suffering because of systematic deficiencies in their healthcare.
Attorneys for the state said Silver adopted a drastic takeover remedy without first trying intermediate fixes to speed compliance and hadn’t given the corrections department enough time to make more progress.
California
Ex-OpenAI worker accused of bugging conference room planned to fly to Saudi Arabia, prosecutors say
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A former OpenAI engineer charged with secretly installing a recording device in a conference room to glean company details had been “mere days” away from absconding to Saudi Arabia before his arrest, federal prosecutors said in new court filings.
Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national, was also fired from his job at the ChatGPT maker, according to a government memo filed Sunday. His wife and young son left the country the day after his arrest on a one-way ticket booked and paid for by a Saudi military official, prosecutors said in the filing.
“Ultimately, the defendant has little incentive to remain in the United States to see this case through,” federal prosecutors wrote. “He has ample resources —including his significant compensation from a decade of high-tech employment in the Bay Area and at least two bank accounts in Saudi Arabia — and what appears to be considerable support from a foreign government.”
Prosecutors also noted Saudi Arabia has no extradition treaty with the U.S. as they seek to detain Alfozan until trial. A judge was to consider the request Monday in federal court in San Francisco.
Alfozan’s lawyers didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment ahead of Monday’s hearing.
But in their own court filings, they argued that Alfozan, who had worked at OpenAI since July 2025, had purchased one-way tickets for his family to Saudi Arabia more than two weeks before prosecutors allege the recording devices were installed.
The defense said the couple planned to spend Alfozan’s roughly two-month paternity leave in Saudi Arabia following the birth of their U.S.-citizen son.
Prosecutors say after his arrest, Saudi officials purchased new plane tickets for the wife and son to leave the U.S. sooner than the Oct. 12 flight Alfozan initially booked.
Alfozan’s lawyers also argued that he was on track to become a naturalized U.S. citizen with an interview with federal officials scheduled next month. They said he has been a legal permanent resident since 2020, has lived in the U.S. for 15 years and attended MIT and the University of California, Berkeley.
“This was a long-held dream for the Alfozan family, as it is for so many immigrants,” his lawyers wrote. “His plan was always to return to the Bay Area, where his home, his career, and his community are.”
Rather than remain in federal custody, Alfozan’s lawyers argue he should be confined to his family’s home in the San Francisco suburbs, with GPS monitoring, travel restrictions and a requirement to surrender his passport.
Prosecutors have not said what Alfozan might have wanted to do with the recordings, but say he was in “frequent communication” with a member of the Saudi royal family. They said the royal family member repeatedly tried to recruit Alfozan to an artificial intelligence venture being launched in Saudi Arabia.
Alfozan told the unnamed person in WhatsApp messages that he wouldn’t leave OpenAI until his stock was vested, even as he explored other career opportunities in the Middle Eastern kingdom, prosecutors wrote.
Prosecutors say Alfozan concealed an audio recording device in toilet paper and plugged it into a USB port on the back of a television in an executive conference room he wasn’t authorized to access. They say security cameras captured him entering the room and checking behind the television after installing the device. It remained there for several days before being found Sept. 30.
Prosecutors say the conference room was typically used for meetings involving company leaders, government officials and other executives and “discussions of highly confidential technical, commercial, and strategic information, including proprietary research, as well as nonpublic information.”
OpenAI has said the recording device Alfozan used was sophisticated, designed to evade detection and featured advanced encryption and audio-monitoring capabilities. They also said they had evidence Alfozan planned to place other listening devices elsewhere in the office.
Alfozan has been charged with using or endeavoring to use an electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept oral communications. If convicted, he faces a five-year prison sentence.
