[RichardSimon]

Originally Posted by pariah1107

Not to exonerate the convicted party here, but it seems this fraudster was buying trinkets on ebay, then reselling them on ebay after engraving Chihuly's sig & forging certs.... isn't there some culpability on the part of ebay? Ebay allowed this to go on for more than a year after being notified of the fraud by Chihuly studios.

For example, the article indicates he sold some of his forgeries through a Renton auction house. What if he bought the items at the Renton auction house, then engraved them, and resold them at the same auction house. I think any reasonable person would say that is beyond unethical, and borders on criminal activity on the part of the auction house as well as the forger.

A story worth mentioning due to some relevance to the above:

I reported this to LE but nothing happened:

A few years ago a blank Babe Ruth Foundation check appeared on ebay.
It was bought by someone I knew and who was a probable forger.
A month later, guess what, the check appeared on ebay again, only this time it was filled out and of course had a forged Babe Ruth signature on it. (the check number was identical to the blank one that had appeared one month earlier). I had printed copies of the blank and the newly filled out check.
This one piece was only the tip of the iceberg for this person and I told LE that. But nothing happened in this instance.