PEBBLE BEACH, Calif.—The alleged $80 million art theft in Pebble Beach just keeps getting stranger. After suggesting that the professed victims — Dr. Ralph Kennaugh and Angelo Benjamin Amadio, the collection’s owners — may have engineered the crime as a hoax as part of a broader criminal conspiracy, police now say that Amadio may have swindled Kennaugh.

Police say that both individuals have been resistant to investigator inquiries into the case, though police commander Mike Richards singled out Amadio in recent comments for making “untruthful and inconsistent statements.” Kennaugh told the Boston Globe that the suggestion that Amadio could have been involved in the heist was “ridiculous.”

Authorities investigating the crime have noted suspicious aspects of the story presented by the two, noting that the two had taken insurance policies worth only $72,000 on seven of the works, not ensuring a Jackson Pollock paining that they maintain was worth millions.

The works were stolen on Sept. 25. Kennaugh and Amadio reported discovering a ransom note four days later, which they turned over to police, further arousing the suspicious of investigators, who say they thoroughly searched the residence after the initial report. Officials are continuing their investigation.

Read more at the Boston Globe.