FBI Raids Ridgewood Home Connected To Possible Art Scam

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — A Ridgewood home was raided by the FBI Tuesday, and it could be in connection to an alleged art scam.

Northjersey.com and CBSNewYork report that the home is owned by Selim and Aysel Dere, the parents of Erdal Dere, a New York art dealer who was indicted Tuesday in a fraud scheme.

The indictment comes from the Southern District of New York and accuses Dere and Faisal Khan, of Flanders, with conducting a long-running scheme to defraud buyers and brokers in the antiquities market.

According to the news release, Dere, who owns and operates the Manhattan-based gallery Fortuna Fine Arts Ltd., along with Khan, used "false provenances" to offer and sell antiquities.

From 2015 to September 2020, the duo would claim deceased art collectors were the previous owners of antiquities they sold in order to conceal their true place of origin.

Khan would assist Fortuna, Dere's gallery, in finding and selling these pieces to buyers, the indictment alleges.

Their scheme wasn't specific to independent buyers either, the indictment alleges. In 2015, Dere allegedly defrauded a New York auction house with fabricated documents for a December 2015 antiquities auction.

Dere and Khan are charged with wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Both wire fraud charges carry a maximum prison term of 20 years.

Dere was also charged with aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory two-year prison sentence.