Last month, the U.S. Marshals office conducted a high-profile auction of Bernie Madoff's ill-gotten belongings to benefit the Ponzi schemer's victims, and now another auction trumpeting his possessions — including artworks by Picasso, Chagall, and Dalí — is set to take place at a hotel in Vail, Colorado. Scheduled for Saturday at the tony Sonnenalp resort, the sale was announced in a mailer sent to members of the affluent ski community, promising the sale of "Bernie Madoff personal property purchased at Madoff auctions together with merchandise bought directly from victims of the Ponzi scheme." But is the auction itself on the level?

A hotel spokesperson declined to say who is conducting the sale, explaining that the resort was merely renting the space. Previous reports of the event have complained of a lack of information concerning the auctioneer. But according to a U.S. Marshal representative who looked into the sale, it will be handled by U.S.A. Art Source, a company whose Web site boasts of "unmatched access to the most elusive sources," which allows it to "acquire pieces at a [sic] substantial reduced price points." Appropriately for an auction house claiming to deal with the possessions of Bernie Madoff, the site adds: "At U.S.A. Artsource [sic] we are aware that as the global economic climate shifts, so do your collecting needs."

But who is behind U.S.A. Art Source? An October article published by the McClatchy-Tribune News Service identifies Abraham Avi Asher and his cousins, Gavin and Dion Abadi, as the company's owners and auctioneers. According to McClatchy, the Abadis have run auction companies since the 1990s with their father, Ezra Aviad Abadi. They travel from city to city with paintings, prints, and sculptures attributed to famous artists, along with jewelry and rugs, setting up auctions in fancy hotels and advertising the sales in local newspapers. The auctioneers have left a trail of angry customers in their wake who, upon seeking appraisals of their purchases, discovered that the prices they paid were exorbitantly high.

Last year, McClatchy reports, Asher and the Abadis came under fire for auctioning a series of objects they claimed once belonged to Madoff and his victims, telling buyers that the proceeds would benefit victims of the crooked Ponzi schemer. Unlike with the U.S. Marshal sales, however, the auctions' receipts were kept by Asher and the Abadis. The items on offer were, as Asher put it to the McClatchy-Tribune, "from Madoff victims. They were not," as previously had been advertised, "on 'behalf' of the Madoff victims."

Asher recently held a series of auctions throughout Texas, which led to three complaints currently under investigation. According to the McClatchy, U.S.A. Art Source and its related companies DRJ Auction Services and East Coast Financial are being investigated by the state of Texas for failing to file sales-tax reports — something Asher and the Abadis have been accused of in many states across the country. In many cases, states have revoked auction licenses and North Carolina has issued warrants for Ezra Abadi and his son, Gavin.

The auctioneers have a history of "coming in, defrauding, not having the appropriate license," North Carolina Auction Licensing Board investigator Ralph Southerland told McClatchy. "They use different names, different addresses, different information on invoices," he continued. "These people, they come, go; sell stuff on Friday; they’re gone on Sunday or Monday."