Authorities this week reported that a California man had been sentenced to almost four years in federal prison for robbing a bank and planning a scheme to steal valuable violins, some of which were 200 years old.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office claims that Mark Meng of Irvine took instruments that local merchants had loaned him while posing as a connoisseur looking to expand his collection.
Among the violins he pilfered were pieces from the 19th and early 20th centuries; according to the prosecution, one instrument from 1823 was worth $175,000.
“[Meng] gained the trust of these violin shops by representing himself as a violin collector who wished to purchase the violins,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office stated in court filings. “[Meng] knew the representations that he made were false and fraudulent because he had no intention, at any point in time, of either paying for or returning the violins after the trial periods.”
Prosecutors said Wednesday that Meng was trying to sell the violins to other buyers when he was supposed to be evaluating them. He made tens of thousands of dollars by reselling a few to an unintentional buyer.
“To better understand the affects of Mr. Meng’s crime, it is important to understand the nature of the antique stringed instrument business. It is a rather close-knit industry with many family-run shops like ours,” David Brobst, one of the violin dealers Meng robbed, stated in court filings. “In the case of Mr. Meng, he manipulated our well-established system of honesty and trust for his own financial gain. He damaged our business and our industry by acquiring instruments under false pretenses.”
Meng, 58, entered a guilty plea to one count of wire fraud and one count of bank robbery in September, and federal officials stated that he was sentenced by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter in the Central District of California.
The violin theft scam was operated by Meng between August 2020 and April 2023. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he has been detained since May 2024 and committed a bank heist in April of last year.
Meng’s lawyer, Anthony M. Solis, said that his client started pilfering the instruments in order to support his drug and gambling addictions.
“The violin scheme was strange but once he really started having debt problems and impaired judgment from the drugs issues it led him to do things like the bank robbery, which for a highly educated guy doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Solis said. Meng, who holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree, was born in China. “People get into deep holes and when you get into a deep hole it’s really hard to emerge from that and people become desperate.”
Prosecutors noted that the FBI’s Art Crime Team, the Irvine Police Department, and the Glendale Police Department were among the authorities participating in the case.
What was the value of the violins?
Meng played the violin, so she was familiar with it. Court documents show that the violins he took as part of his plot were beautiful.
According to court documents, the instruments were valued at much to $175,000 and went all the way back to the early 19th century.
According to court filings, the amateur violinist never returned the instruments after stating that he was interested in purchasing them but that he needed to test them out first.
Prosecutors claim that by showcasing his proficiency with the instruments, he won the trust of store owners.
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The guilty plea stated that the 1823 Lorenzo Ventapane, valued at $175,000, was the most costly and oldest violin. According to the high-end violin marketplace Tarisio, Ventapane was a Neapolitan violin maker who lived from 1780 until 1843.
According to court filings, Meng took the Ventapane and a $55,000 Guilio Degani violin from 1903 from Brobst’s Alexandria, Virginia, store.
According to court documents, a $60,000 Gand & Bernardel violin from 1870 was also taken. According to Tarisio, Gand & Bernardel was a Parisian violin-making company that was active in the late 1800s.
This Information has been sourced from usatoday.
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