Michael,
I haven't been following things closely after the holidays. And all I know of the trial is what's in the paper (no inside info). I will say, I've not heard anything that makes me disbelieve that the Salisbury's and Wilson did defraud Owsley and most importantly the Museum (which was my original "inside" view). There were commissions/kickbacks paid to Karen, over-inflated valuations, undocumented commissions, and didn't report a couple of MILLION in commissions (didn't think he needed to
).
Don't get me wrong: OBF has come off very badly and I'm not suggesting that I believe that he hasn't played fast and loose with the tax laws. But him being wrong, doesn't make the Salisbury's right. I really do believe that Owsley didn't know the magnitude of the commission/kickbacks Mike was taking for himself and that Mike was over-valuing the collection for his personal gain (hence the fraud). There are even rumors that there maybe problems with the authenticity of several key pieces (which was done by Mike), but OBF didn't push on this issue for fear of hurting the museum.
DEb