Ex-Enron CEO Attempts Shake Down of NY Gallery

The New York Post reported earlier today that a former Enron executive tried to extort money out of a New York gallery, for $150,000.

The gallery hired lawyers and investigators to look into the allegations, and they found the painting had either been altered or was “not the same painting” he was sold back in 1997. They also reported finding that the real painting “is the sole property of Enron” – and properly belongs to shareholders or the creditors and pensioners who were owed money in the collapse. They charge he concocted the blackmail scheme after finding out he couldn’t sell the piece for as much as money as he needed.

The East 61st Street gallery is firing back with a $400,000 lawsuit, saying the art they sold was genuine.