A $50 Million Stock-Fraud Probe, 6 Defendants and a Picasso

Alleged pump-and-dump tried to launder profits through artwork
Undercover FBI agent secretly recorded defendants in talks

Pedestrians walk past the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York.
Photographer: John Taggart/Bloomberg

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By Patricia Hurtado, Donal Griffin, and Joe Easton

March 2, 2018 at 3:19 PM UTC

Updated on

March 2, 2018 at 8:43 PM UTC

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U.S. prosecutors lifted the veil on a $50 million international stock-manipulation scam that got shut down after the alleged culprits suggested to an undercover FBI agent that they buy a Picasso to launder illicit profits.

It’s the “only market that is unregulated,” one of the alleged wrongdoers boasted in a conversation that was secretly recorded, U.S. prosecutors said as they handed down an indictment in Brooklyn, New York, against six people on Friday.