NEW YORK. Manhattan dealer Edward Merrin was sentenced on 17 September in a federal case that charged him and his son Samuel Merrin with defrauding their clients William Ziff and his wife out of millions of dollars. The case against Samuel Merrin continues.Edward Merrin was sentenced to one year's probation with eight months of home confinement, ordered to pay the government a $3,000 fine, and to pay restitution of $44,455 to the victims. Mr Ziff, who died in 2006 as the case was proceeding, built the Ziff-Davis publishing empire which the family sold for $1.4bn in 1994. In light of the scale of the allegations, the sentence is being seen by some as a "slap on the wrist". According to the 2005 indictments, filed separately against Edward and Samuel Merrin, the dealers entered into an oral agreement around 1989 to sell the Ziffs' antiquities according to a "cost-plus agreement". This meant that the couple would pay the Merrin Gallery's cost of acquiring the art plus an agreed commission ranging from 10% to 20%, depending on various criteria. From 1989 to 1999, the couple paid the Merrins "over $63m to purchase [hundreds of pieces of] art, approximately half of which (by value) was purportedly covered by the cost-plus agreement". The indictment alleges that by misrepresenting the gallery's acquisition cost, the Merrins fraudulently increased both the "cost" component and commission component of the prices they charged the couple.The government prosecuted the Merrins for mail fraud, which makes it a felony to transmit fraudulent information across state lines and is punishable by fine or imprisonment of up to 20 years, or both. The indictment lists 11 items as evidence of the fraudulent scheme, in each case providing the purported purchase price and commission that the Merrins charged, as well as the actual (lower) purchase price. The source of the government's information on the purchase prices was not disclosed. The list ranges from ancient Syrian pieces to pre-Columbian antiquities. In 1999, according to court papers, the Merrins sold the Ziffs five Olmec standing figures (1200-900 BC) for "$775,000 plus 10% [commission] totalling $852,500", but the actual cost to the dealers had been approximately $410,000. The fraud peaked in 1999 with the sale of an Olmec jade mask of a bearded ruler (900-600 BC), "collected in the 1960s", invoiced for "$1,120,000 plus 10% [commission] totalling $1,232,000", that allegedly had cost the gallery only $390,000.The criminal case against Edward Merrin's son continues and may expand to include other parties. In June, Samuel Merrin entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, details of which have not been made public. This is an arrangement in which the government agrees to dismiss charges if the defendant meets conditions that typically involve co-operating with the investigation. It remains to be seen what Samuel Merrin will reveal in order to have the charges dismissed. He has until December when the court will reconvene to determine if he has satisfied all the conditions of the agreement. Jason Edward Kaufman