A Los Angeles man who previously operated a business in Beverly Hills known as Gentlemen Timepieces appeared in court Wednesday on charges of defrauding customers of his luxury watch consignment business.
Anthony Farrer, 35, who until recently lived in downtown Los Angeles, was charged in a federal criminal complaint filed Monday with wire fraud, a felony that carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Farrer was arrested without incident at a storage facility in Venice on Tuesday and made his initial appearance Wednesday in Los Angeles federal court. An arraignment was scheduled for Dec. 14 and a detention hearing is set for Thursday.
According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, Farrer founded the company in Texas in 2017 and opened a location in Beverly Hills in 2022. Farrer used the business to connect purchasers and sellers of high-end watches. He would typically collect a watch from an individual and have them sign a consignment agreement that stipulated he would collect a commission from the sale, typically 5%, according to court papers.
The complaint alleges that Farrer defrauded victims beginning late last year until this summer, when he promised customers he would sell their luxury watches on consignment. Rather than remitting funds back to the customers less the commission, he kept the proceeds for himself, federal prosecutors allege.
Farrer lived in a luxury rental property and was known to drive a Lamborghini and Ducati motorcycles. He traveled frequently to, and engaged in gambling in, Las Vegas, according to the complaint.
Farrer induced victims into wiring funds for the purchase of luxury watches and, instead of purchasing the agreed upon watch, he would send them a different watch, the complaint alleges.
In one case, a victim received a Rolex watch from Farrer in lieu of money Farrer owed, but the Rolex belonged to another victim who had provided the watch to Farrer to sell on consignment and did not authorize Farrer to use the watch as payment for his debts to other victims, prosecutors contend.
The complaint further alleges that Farrer operated a scheme in a similar manner to a Ponzi scheme and would lull victims into a sense of security by engaging in smaller successful transactions prior to requesting or engaging in significantly larger transactions.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, multiple victims contacted law enforcement to report that they wired funds to Farrer for the purchase of a watch, or mailed him a watch to consign for sale, but were never paid for the watch or never received their watch back. To date, law enforcement estimates say that victim losses currently total about $3 million. The investigation is ongoing and law enforcement is in the process of identifying additional victims.
Farrer apparently abandoned the Beverly Hills store three months ago and began posting about his various travel throughout the United States on social media. As recently as last month, Farrer continued to advertise watches for sale on his social media platforms, according to the complaint.