A Los Angeles couple who sold artworks on their satellite television series are expected to plead guilty to all charges in a $20 million fraud case. Kristine Eubanks, 49, and Gerald Sullivan, 51, admitted that they sold prints, complete with forged signatures, of work by several major artists including Picasso, Chagall, and Daliare expected to plead guilty.

According to depositions, the couple confessed that they purchased the pictures through their print shop, and then re-sold the bogus works on the television series Fine Art Treasures Gallery. They further admitted to artificially inflating the bids on auctions aired during the programmes.

Through their television show, which was featured on two US satellite networks, they sold counterfeit art prints to more than 10,000 people. Tom Cogliano, a California businessman, paid more than $50,000 for six pieces auctioned by Eubanks and Sullivan. He subsequently donated a print, attributed to Salvador Dali, to a charity fundraiser only to have an appraiser declare it a fake.

When the couple were arrested in September 2006 police seized a large store of forged artworks ready for sale, plus $4m in proceeds from the business. Assistant U.S. Attorney, David Willingham, said he hoped the case would bring a wider network of art forgers to light. "They had to get this stuff from someplace," he said. The assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles office, J. Stephen Tidwell, described the couple's activities as "an elaborate criminal enterprise" and described art auction fraud a significant and growing problem.

Both defendants have also entered guilty pleas for a series of related financial wrongdoings including tax evasion and receiving stolen goods. Sullivan’s initial court appearance will take place later this month. Once the case is heard Eubanks, who is already on probation for another offence, faces a penalty of up to 10 years in federal prison while Sullivan faces a maximum of six years.

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