Miami art dealer Leslie Howard Roberts was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for selling forged Andy Warhol artwork.

This is a conviction, not an accusation. Roberts pleaded guilty, and the 46 months is the court's judgment. What is still open is how much the buyers get back. The judgment, as Miami New Times published it, defers the restitution decision to Jan. 20, 2027. The New York Post reported he must pay back nearly $2.6 million he made from the scheme.

U.S. District Judge Roy K. Altman sentenced Leslie Roberts, of Miami, to 46 months in federal prison after Roberts pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida announced Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. The judgment in the case, published by Miami New Times, gives his full name as Leslie Howard Roberts, lists Oct. 2, 2026, as the date the sentence was imposed, adds three years of supervised release and orders him remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshal. The remaining counts were dismissed on the government's motion. The U.S. Attorney's Office gave his age as 62, and the New York Post reported it as 63.

According to court records cited by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Roberts sold forged artwork at Miami Fine Art Gallery in Coconut Grove that he falsely represented as original works by Andy Warhol. He told buyers he had acquired the pieces directly from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and gave them fraudulent invoices that appeared to come from the foundation. He also used forged authentication bearing the name of the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board, with purported signatures of its representatives, and fraudulent foundation identification numbers and counterfeit stamps on the backs of the works, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Roberts enlisted Carlos Rodriguez Melendez to pose as an employee of a New York-based auction company and falsely authenticate artwork to hide that it was forged. Rodriguez Melendez also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and the New York Post reported he was sentenced to probation. The judgment bars Roberts from associating with Rodriguez Melendez while on supervised release. The New York Post reported Roberts was arrested in April 2025.

"Leslie Roberts turned his Miami art gallery into a vehicle for fraud, selling forged Andy Warhol artwork and using fabricated documents to deceive unsuspecting buyers," U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said. "Fraud is fraud, whether it happens on Wall Street or in an art gallery." Brett D. Skiles, special agent in charge of the FBI Miami Field Office, said art fraud "undermines confidence in the legitimate art market." The FBI Art Crime Team and FBI West Palm Beach investigated.

The New York Post reported that another South Florida dealer, Daniel Elie Bouaziz, who owned two galleries in Palm Beach County, was sentenced in 2023 to two years and three months in federal prison in a separate fake-Warhol case after pleading guilty to money laundering. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Roberts gave up that presumption on this count when he pleaded guilty, and the sentence is the court's judgment.