How K. Haggard fooled/swindled several top collectors in 2007-09 with fake MPs

[guest4955]

I never really understood in Round 1 how the notorious swindler Kerry Haggard fooled top collectors like Jim Gresham with numerous expensive fake MPs and LCs. I also never understood why Gresham dropped his claims against the restorer Jamie Mendez.

Perhaps the technical details were unveiled on MOPO but I missed them.

Anyways, it occurred to me recently to locate/download the court records to see what they revealed. Here's what the 12/2009 Amended Complaint reveals:













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Later court records revealed that Haggard stopped defending the case after he was jailed and declared bankruptcy.

In 2012 the court issued its legal findings and  $2.6 million judgment against Haggard:





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I don't know whether Gresham  subsequently recovered either dollars or his MP trades to Haggard.

[erik1925]

And as Jim Gresham said in this post to MOPO, back in July 2011, when his 2nd book, They're Here Already, was published and ready for sale, about what he had to deal with, with regard to the Haggards:

The full post is here: http://www.mail-archive.com/mopo-l@listserv.american.edu/msg46891.html

Ive only included the portion below, where he speaks about the runaround he got from the Haggard twosome:



"Many people ask how they can help with the legal battles against Kerry Haggard. This is actually one way you can assist in holding this guy accountable. 

I have spent nearly $100,000 in legal fees thus far.  I have no regrets as Haggard sits in prison this very moment.  But, if you want to help, book sales will go towards legal fees.  While that may seem like a lot of money, Haggard has done just about everything he could to avoid persecution. He transferred assets to his wife. When we sued them, they filed for divorce, making it so they have to be pursued in two separate states. 

As I got close on Haggard, he filed for Bankruptcy.  We knew that was a fraud and we went to GA to fight his bankruptcy.  We were successful in getting that set aside.  This allowed anyone who sued Haggard to once again go after him.  Then Tiffany his former wife filed for bankruptcy.  Now we have to fight that in Arizona. 

They are both nasty evil people and they have played every legal game possible.  But I believe in our legal system.

The FBI have been incredible.

Concerning Haggard, we hope to have positive news for our hobby soon.

Thanks so much, Jim Gresham"

[erik1925]

Earlier APF threads on this topic, too:

http://www.allposterforum.com/index.php/topic,706.0.html

http://www.allposterforum.com/index.php/topic,4081.0.html

http://www.allposterforum.com/index.php/topic,3350.0.html

[MoviePosterBid.com]

all I can say.. is that this story is not yet over.

[erik1925]

all I can say.. is that this story is not yet over.

Indeed not.

And in the mean time,  I can say that Mr Gresham has received a number of his items back; and more are to be returned, as well.  

[crowzilla]

Indeed not.

And in the mean time,  I can say that Mr Gresham has received a number of his items back; and more are to be returned, as well.  

Many more are still missing and may well never be recovered, and of course Gresham will be out the money forever.
The confiscated parts of the Haggard collection will be coming to auction soon and the money that they bring will be used to (partially) compensate the many victims of his scheme. It is estimated that Haggard received nearly $2 million in cash and an equal amount in posters over the years he was doing this. That's not only money that is permanently out of the hobby, but a lot of it is material that is still missing and may be permanently out also.

[erik1925]

Many more are still missing and may well never be recovered, and of course Gresham will be out the money forever.
The confiscated parts of the Haggard collection will be coming to auction soon and the money that they bring will be used to (partially) compensate the many victims of his scheme. It is estimated that Haggard received nearly $2 million in cash and an equal amount in posters over the years he was doing this. That's not only money that is permanently out of the hobby, but a lot of it is material that is still missing and may be permanently out also.

Here's hoping that the auction does VERY well, so that Jim and all the others can get some of their swndled cash back. 

And it will be interesting, too, to see what items appear in this auction.

[Louie D.]

And who was giving me shit on this forum for not liking Todd Feiertag?

[50s]

And who was giving me shit on this forum for not liking Todd Feiertag?

Move along, bozo

[crowzilla]

And it will be interesting, too, to see what items appear in this auction.

i know.

[Neo]

Move along, bozo

 

[Harry Caul]

And who was giving me shit on this forum for not liking Todd Feiertag?

Has Todd's involvement ever been discussed?  I didn't realize he was mixed up in this...

[Louie D.]

Move along, bozo

No.

[Louie D.]

Has Todd's involvement ever been discussed?  I didn't realize he was mixed up in this...

Who can discuss it when others try to shut you down?

[guest4955]

Has Todd's involvement ever been discussed?  I didn't realize he was mixed up in this...

I'll take a second shot at the legal papers to find out and dig up pics of the fakes. There's a lot of papers I skipped.

[guest4955]

Ok, I did a deeper dive into the court records.

In their Answer to the First Complaint (not the later one I posted earlier), Haggard and his wife vaguely denied the fraud accusations, claiming they lacked sufficient knowledge.

I skimmed the 230 page deposition of Haggard's wife. She denies knowing about the fraud, says she "doesn't care about" the posters, doesn't know what Haggard did with his own originals and Gresham's trades, and never got any straight answers from Haggard about what happened. She declared bankruptcy and was apparently dropped as a target.

Haggard was never deposed, presumably b/c he was imprisoned.

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Jaime Mendez filed the following affidavit, which Gresham used to redraft and submit his second Complaint, which I included above, which drops Mendez as a defendant.







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In the Motion for Summary Judgment, which the judge fully accepted b/c it was unopposed, Gresham describes Fiertag's involvement:



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The records include 20+ authentications by Poster Mountain. Here are three that interested me:

[timelessmoviemagic]

I heard that the Mendez chap does restoration for Heritage. Is that true?

If that's the case I'm shocked Heritage use him when he knowingly was involved in this high profile scam.

[ddilts399]

Cant believe Jamie came out of this with no fine, no jail time. Ridiculous to claim no knowledge of what the hell Haggard was up to. Aging the front to make stuff look authentic for display I can buy, aging the back to pass off... who the hell is going to spend the money he charges to make up a fake of that quality just for their own display.

Haggard's facebook into..

Intro
Mastermind of the greatest movie poster scandal in american history.


  unreal, thats something to brag about.

[hepcatpunk]

Fascinating reading...this and the links below.  I was on one of my breaks from this hobby then so hadn't known about this.  I do think I've learned about a few restorers who I would never do business with in the future though. 

[MoviePosterBid.com]

Cant believe Jamie came out of this with no fine, no jail time. Ridiculous to claim no knowledge of what the hell Haggard was up to. Aging the front to make stuff look authentic for display I can buy, aging the back to pass off... who the hell is going to spend the money he charges to make up a fake of that quality just for their own display.

he may not have known in the beginning, but you can't be that stupid for all that very long.

as to the why no jail..

this is the scene in Blue Bloods where Bridget Moynihan tells the thug "whoever turns first has a get out of jail free card."

the other side, was that Jim knew that without Jaime, there was a poor case against Haggard for conspiracy and Jaime wasn't giving a deposition unless he came out clean. So, no lawsuit either.

[Louie D.]

Ooooooh, that Todd Feiertag...................such an upstanding guy.

[erik1925]

I emailed and asked Jim Gresham about what he knew or his thoughts about Todd Feiertag's part (if any) in the Haggard scandal.

Jim wrote me back this afternoon, stating that Todd was the person who first took Haggard to the printer who then made the beautiful hi res copies, BUT Gresham also said that he didnt believe that Feiertag ever knew that Haggard would take things any further, let alone him knowing anything about Haggard having the fakes created & made.

It sounds like Haggard asked Todd F if he knew of a good quality printer where he could have repro images done, since Todd comes from that background.

But no other involvement by Todd F in the scandal. And again, this is per Jim Gresham directly, so Ive no reason to doubt that Gresham would state other than what he truly believed.

[mcfree]

Wow! All of that is just crazy......and sad.

[Louie D.]

I emailed and asked Jim Gresham about what he knew or his thoughts about Todd Feiertag's part (if any) in the Haggard scandal.

Jim wrote me back this afternoon, stating that Todd was the person who first took Haggard to the printer who then made the beautiful hi res copies, BUT Gresham also said that he didnt believe that Feiertag ever knew that Haggard would take things any further, let alone him knowing anything about Haggard having the fakes created & made.

It sounds like Haggard asked Todd F if he knew of a good quality printer where he could have repro images done, since Todd comes from that background.

But no other involvement by Todd F in the scandal. And again, this is per Jim Gresham directly, so Ive no reason to doubt that Gresham would state other than what he truly believed.

Then why would the court find otherwise?

[erik1925]

I only relayed what thoughts Jim Gresham expressed to me.