New charges brought against R.L Wilson..

[bg]

Many know this fellow as one who has produced serial num
books for Colt and other weapons. Now while serving time
for a separate charge, new charges have been brought
against involving fraud and a certain firearm collection. >
http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-ctwilson0711.artjul11,0,4607236.story?coll=hc-headlines-local

Wilson, a widely published authority on Colt, Winchester and other historic firearms, helped an Alabama couple defraud a Louisville museum founder out of nearly $2 million by inflating the values of some antique firearms, according to the federal indictment.

I myself have a small book of Colt firearm serial numbers
and production yrs from Wilson, and I'm sure I'm not
the only one. Pretty sad when one resorts to this kind
of thievery. Course everyone is innocent until proven
guilty and there ARE two sides to every story...Still...

 

[ArmedBear]

Hmmm....

While I don't condone or support fraud, and I figure that collectors of things should be able to bid on the free market for whatever they want at whatever price, one has to admit that defrauding collectors is among the most innocuous of "serious" crimes.

Here are wealthy people who are willing to pay a LOT of money for an item that is virtually identical to another item that's far less, because it has a certain number stamped into it. These are items they will never actually use for anything.

It's just not the same as robbing working class parents, or getting schoolkids hooked on Meth, or defrauding a cancer patient with placebos marked as cancer meds.

I just can't get TOO excited about it. He did something wrong, he's in jail. It's gotta be that way in a nation of "laws, not men." I just can't get all riled.

 

[BigG]

I have his coffee table book, Colt: An American Legend. Lots of one-off stuff depicted in that one. Gorgeous firearms.

It's sad that he seems to have had a continual criminal enterprise going since the 1970s.

 

[Ala Dan]

Uum~!

"an Alabama couple"

Dang sure wasn't me and my wifey pooh~!

 

[MakAttak]

Update to this case:

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080122/NEWS01/80122038

Jury acquits gun dealer, wife on fraud charges
The Courier-Journal





After a six-week trial and 11 hours of deliberation, a U.S. District Court jury today acquitted a gun dealer and his wife on charges of conspiring to defraud Owsley Brown Frazier and his museum by overcharging him for historic weapons.

The jury of nine women and three men also found Michael Salisbury and Karen Cruse Salisbury not guilty of money laundering for allegedly hiding secret kickbacks and commission in her bank account.

But Michael Salisbury was convicted of two counts of failing to file taxes, which are misdemeanors. U.S. District Judge Charles R. Simpson III set sentencing for April 28.

A third defendant, R.L. Wilson, a world-renowned expert on antique weapons, was found not guilty of aiding and abetting a false tax return by overvaluing weapons that Frazier donated to the museum.

If he’d been convicted of the most serious charged, Michael Salisbury faced a maximum sentence of 95 years in prison and a $2.5 million fine, and his wife faced 35 years imprisonment and a $1 million fine.

Federal prosecutors had portrayed Michael Salisbury as a “con man” who took advantage of Frazier and the museum by secretly adding commissions to 34 transactions.

They said Cruse Salisbury, his girlfriend who he later married, helped in the con by “schmoozing” Frazier and isolating him from people who might have told him he was being ripped off.

The government alleged they bilked Frazier and the museum out of $1.75 million in markups and kickbacks on guns owned by Gen. George Custer and J. Edgar Hoover, among others.

But their defense lawyers pointed to Frazier’s own testimony on cross-examination, in which he admitted he told Salisbury “to take care of yourself” and that he expected he was charging commissions.

Frazier also admitted that when he owned Bittners, an antique store, he tried to sell furniture for at least twice what he paid for it.

The verdicts end the criminal case. Still pending is a federal court suit Frazier filed in 2004 against Salisbury alleging that he charged marked-up prices on at least 70 weapons purchased for more than $1 million.