[CPProt.net] Art dealer in stolen items case accused of obstruction; instead of helping O'Hara win his appeal, art dealer Marilyn Karos found herself facing federal charges. Again.

[CulPropProtNet/MusSecNetwork]

Original URL: http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/feb05/303513.asp 


Art dealer in stolen items case accused of obstruction 
By GINA BARTON
gbarton at journalsentinel.com
Posted: Feb. 20, 2005
She had been searching for him for months.

Finally, she found him in Chicago, the one man who could help get her former
lover, Richard O'Hara, out of prison. Only he wasn't cooperating.

Court records say she pleaded with him, and that then she offered him money.
She had no idea the FBI was listening in on the whole thing.

Marilyn Karos 
 


Marilyn Karos 
 
Archive Coverage 
7/13/01: Art dealer sentenced to 10 years for stolen goods
6/8/01: Prison, fine given in Bay art case
3/21/01: Illinois art dealer convicted of conspiracy
3/14/01: Secrets delay trial over stolen art
3/9/01: Art dealer ordered to pay for man's beating
9/22/00: Art dealers to stand trial in beating
7/22/00: Arrests show dark side of art world
 
And so, instead of helping O'Hara win his appeal, art dealer Marilyn Karos
found herself facing federal charges. Again.

The plan, and the trips to Chicago to implement it, are described in federal
court documents charging Karos, 63, with obstruction of justice. Authorities
allege in charges brought last year that she bribed the Chicago man, James
Kosi, to sign a false affidavit about a 2001 case in which O'Hara was
convicted of two felonies. O'Hara was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The
severity of the punishment was due, in part, to evidence that O'Hara hit a
man with a baseball bat and threatened to inject something into the belly of
the man's pregnant wife.

Hope for appeal
Kosi was one of the prosecution's key witnesses. According to court records,
O'Hara and Karos hoped an affidavit from Kosi stating that the threats never
happened would strengthen O'Hara's appeal.

Karos' attorney, Stephen Glynn, declined to comment. But court documents
filed on her behalf say that the affidavit was not false, and that Karos
wasn't the one who submitted it to a federal appeals court. 

The new charge against Karos is the latest development in a saga of stolen
artifacts that stretches from a museum in Italy to a basement in Whitefish
Bay.

Roman museum
It all started in 1984, when thieves took 85 items from an astronomy museum
in Rome. The loss of the ancient timepieces and navigational instruments,
many of them centuries old, was so devastating that the museum had to close.
About a year later, a man who owed Karos money gave her three astrolabes -
designed to measure time and the motion of stars and planets - and an
armillary sphere - similar to a globe - valued at a total between $300,000
and $450,000.

Prosecutors say Karos, who specializes in fine art and interior design at
the store she operates out of her home on N. Shore Drive, did some research
and realized the items were stolen. In the 1990s, Karos met O'Hara, a
Chicago-area antiques dealer, and the two developed a "personal and business
relationship," according to court records. For a time, O'Hara kept the
stolen pieces in his store, according to court records. By 1997, they still
had not been sold.

Enter Zakria El-Shafei, who had previously sold some jewelry on consignment
for Karos. He agreed to do the same with the astrolabes and armillary sphere
but failed to make a sincere effort because he suspected they were stolen,
according to court records. After consulting with an attorney, he decided to
stall Karos while trying to get a reward for returning the items to Italy.

Family emergency
Late in 1997, El-Shafei's father in Jordan was diagnosed with cancer, the
records say. El-Shafei pawned one of the astrolabes for $7,000 to help with
treatment. He managed to get the astrolabe back from the pawnbroker the next
day without paying back the money, but Karos found out.

"Thereafter, Karos continuously asked Shafei to return the four pieces,
calling constantly and even stopping by his home," in Shorewood, according
to court records.

Finally, she "lured him to her Whitefish Bay home with a story about wanting
to show him some jewelry," according to the records. His wife was in the car
outside. Waiting in the basement were James Kosi, the man Karos later
tracked down in Chicago; her then-lover, O'Hara; and a third man, Danny
Williams, according to court records. Later, at O'Hara's federal court trial
in 2001, witnesses said the three had intended only to scare El-Shafei. Also
according to testimony, O'Hara, who was wearing a mask, hit El-Shafei's
wrist with a baseball bat and threatened El-Shafei's wife. All three men
pressed El-Shafei to tell them where the items were and to return them.

In January 2001, Karos pleaded guilty to one count of receiving and
possessing stolen property in connection with the case. She served seven
months in prison. Neither Kosi nor Williams was charged federally. Kosi
pleaded guilty to battery, a misdemeanor, in Milwaukee County Circuit Court.

In search of an affidavit
Karos' trips to Chicago in April 2004 were an attempt to get a truthful
affidavit from Kosi, according to a letter O'Hara wrote to the Journal
Sentinel. Kosi asked for money in return, O'Hara said.

"I really feel sorry for Marilyn. She did an honest deed to help a friend -
not a lover, just a friend - and got slammed again," O'Hara wrote.

Kosi could not be reached. An affidavit filed by an FBI agent says that in
recorded telephone conversations, "Karos asked Kosi to help O'Hara by
signing a false affidavit." It also alleges that "Karos offered to pay Kosi
$56,000 to sign the false affidavit."

Prosecutor steps in
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Johnson, who is prosecuting the latest case
against Karos, said she is so convinced the affidavit is false that she
filed an emergency motion with the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which
was considering O'Hara's appeal.

"I didn't let it sit with the 7th Circuit. We felt we were duty-bound to
inform them we had reason to believe it was false," Johnson said.

The appeal has since been dismissed, and O'Hara remains in custody. 

At the time of Karos' sentencing hearing on the initial charges in 2001,
letters written to the judge on her behalf by her adult daughter, her
husband and others describe her as a naïve artist with a passionate love for
beauty. 

John Ellingson, a family friend, wrote: "While Marilyn is brilliant and
knowledgeable in many areas . . . she has always had the innocence and
judgment of a small child in many others. She is much like the character
played by Dustin Hoffman in 'Rainman,' although not to that extreme."

O'Hara's wife and daughters wrote glowing letters on his behalf as well,
despite Karos' acknowledgment during the trial that she and O'Hara had been
lovers.

Victim now a fugitive
During the trial, one of the assistant U.S. attorneys prosecuting the case
described the victim, El-Shafei, as a "thug" and a "slippery character." His
ex-wife told the FBI not only that she feared him, but also that she
wouldn't be surprised if he had made up the assault story, and that he once
told her "he injured his hands and wrists while being smuggled in a barrel
out of Libya," according to a letter she wrote to the FBI that the agency
gave to prosecutors and the defense. O'Hara wants the letter used in his
appeal. 

As it turns out, El-Shafei was transformed from a prosecution witness in
2001 to a criminal defendant in January 2003, when he was charged with
felony theft in Milwaukee County Circuit Court. According to court records,
he accepted $3,750 to put a new roof on someone's house but never did the
work. He has been a fugitive for more than two years, according to the
records. Assistant District Attorney Maria Dorsey, who is prosecuting the
case, said the last anyone heard, he was in Poland.

Karos didn't want to discuss her case. If convicted of the new charge, she
would face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Her trial has been set
for April 11 in Milwaukee.

"To sensationalize somebody and hurt the whole family is devastating. It
really is," she said. "To base these stories on someone who now has a
warrant out for his arrest just isn't right."