From Stockbridge To London To Geneva

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has affirmed and reversed, in part, a judgment based on the following facts

This case arises out of a thirty-year-old art theft in Berkshire  County and the plaintiff’s eventual recovery of seven stolen paintings from the defendant, Robert M. Mardirosian, a Massachusetts attorney who had represented the suspected thief, David Colvin, prior to Colvin’s death in 1979. The facts surrounding the defendant’s botched attempts to profit from having found the paintings, and the circuitous path to their recovery, from Stockbridge, to London, to Geneva, and eventually back to the plaintiff, are set forth in detail in United States v. Mardirosian, 602 F.3d 1, 4, 5, 6 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, 131 S.Ct. 287 (2010).  Suffice it to say, Robert Mardirosian was convicted by a jury in Federal court of one count of possessing, concealing, or storing the stolen paintings in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2315 (2006).  Id. at 4. The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed both his conviction and his sentence of seven years in prison and three years of supervised release.  Id. at 4, 6-7.  Mardirosian also was ordered to pay a $100,000 fine and to return the paintings still in his possession.  Id. at 7.

The case before us arises not from this criminal prosecution, but from civil claims brought by the victim of the theft, Michael Bakwin, against Mardirosian in Superior Court while the criminal proceedings against Mardirosian were pending.  Bakwin sued Mardirosian for fraud and conversion in order to recoup over $3.4 million he had spent in his efforts to recover the stolen paintings. 

The jury awarded $3 million in damages and found seven frausulent transfers of property. The court here sorted the mess as follows

The judgment with respect to the Falmouth residence is affirmed.  The judgment with respect to the Citizens Bank savings account is reversed and remanded for entry of judgment against Robert Mardirosian.  The judgment with respect to the Citizens Investment Services brokerage account is affirmed.  The judgment against David Mardirosian with respect to the Mardirosian Riverside Trust is reversed, and the case is remanded for entry of a money judgment against David Mardirosian in the amount of the value of the asset at the time of transfer subject to adjustment as the equities may require.

The attorney was disbarred.

The case is Bakwin v. Mardirosian, decided April 2, 2014. (Mike Frisch)