Two brothers from Girona realised they received fake bills after trying to sell a fake Goya painting.
The brothers sold the forged painting to an Arab sheik for 1.7 million Swiss francs (1.83 million USD). They later realised that the money turned out to be all in photocopied paper bills, El Pais reported.
The brothers were detained by customs authorities in Avignon, France after they entered the country from Turin with the fake bills in 2014.
Spain’s National Police then started an investigation and discovered a string of backstabbing deals between the brothers and sheik.
The brothers reportedly tried to sell the sheik a forged painting by Francisco de Goya – Portrait of Antonio María Esquivel – for €4 million (4.24 million USD).
A person who said he represented the sheik gave the brothers 1.7 million Swiss francs (1.83 million USD) in Turin. The siblings then called a loan shark in Girona to give €300,000 (318,000 USD) as intermediaries’ commissions to another person in the Catalan city who also claimed to represent the sheik.
The brothers then visited a Geneva bank to deposit the money, and was told that the bills were photocopied fakes.
The brothers initially bought the painting in 2003 thinking it was authentic. They paid a down payment of €20,000 (21,176 USD) and did not pay the remaining €270,000 (285,876 USD) after a Girona court ruled that the painting was a forgery and forgave the remaining debt in 2006.
The identities of the siblings and the sheik remain anonymous. The brothers faced swindling charges.