[MSN] Convicted art dealer recaptured after escape from Cumberland County prison. He was serving a two-year sentence for evading taxes when he sold a painting by impressionist Claude Monet

[MSN]

Convicted art dealer recaptured after escape from Cumberland County prison
DANIEL WALSH, Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, March 19, 2008

12:15 p.m. Update - Rocco DeSimone, a convicted art dealer who escaped from the federal prison in Fairton, N.J., on Saturday night, turned himself in to the U.S. Marshal Service today and now sits in a cell block in Rhode Island.

DeSimone walked away from the minimum security unit at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton less than a year before he was scheduled for release. He was serving a two-year sentence for evading taxes when he sold a painting by impressionist Claude Monet, prosecutors said Tuesday.

His wife, Gail DeSimone, has been charged with harboring an escaped prisoner. She called her husband on the day of his escape, flew to Philadelphia and rented a car there. She picked up her husband, headed north and dropped him off in Putnam, Conn., Deputy U.S. Marshal C.J. Wyant told WPRI-TV in Rhode Island.

Gail DeSimone's attorney, Robert Mann, refused to comment on the case.
The escape happened just days after FBI agents searched the DeSimone home in Johnston during a fraud and money laundering investigation, according to court papers. Tom Connell, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney in Providence, would not describe the probe in detail.

Wyant said federal authorities have seized roughly $1 million in property during that investigation, including 50 antique Japanese swords.

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In 2005, a jury in Providence convicted DeSimone of filing a false income tax return. Prosecutors say that by lying about how long he owned the Monet painting, DeSimone avoided paying about $420,000 in taxes.

He was acquitted of two wire fraud charges.

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