HARTFORD, Conn. — A Wilton man who operated an art fraud scheme and sold 145 fake Peter Max paintings was sentenced on Wednesday to 14 months in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut.
Nicholas P. Hatch, 29, defrauded 43 customers out of a total of $248,600, prosecutors said. He was sentenced in Hartford by a U.S. district judge, who ordered him to make full restitution.
Hatch’s sentence is followed by three years of supervised release.
Court documents and statements made in court reveal that Hatch owned Hatch Estate Services LLC, a Norwalk-based estate sales company.
Hatch used various websites to sell purported paintings supposedly created by Peter Max, an American artist of German-Jewish origin who is known for using bright colors in his work and first rose to international popularity in the 1960s, his biography states.
One of the websites Hatch used to sell the fake Peter Max paintings was Estatesales.org, which specializes in estate sales and auctions, according to court documents.
Knowing that the paintings were not authentic Peter Max creations, Hatch used multiple aliases when interacting with purchasers through email during the sales process, court documents state. Prosecutors said Hatch made various representations as to the authenticity of the paintings and even provided certificates that claimed the pieces were authentic.
Hatch was arrested on a criminal complaint on May 9, 2023, and pleaded guilty to mail fraud on Aug. 7, 2023, prosecutors said.
After being released on bond, Hatch is required to report to federal prison on June 17. The investigation was led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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Dalton Zbierski is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at dzbierski@FOX61.com.
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