Artworks by Michael Whipple (aka "Sky Jones") have a long and checkered history in the "barter" community. Some years ago the SEC apparently investigated a lifeless public company named ITEX (a "barter exchange") in which Whipple was involved. The following report (dated 9/5/2000) states-->
The article described an ongoing SEC investigation, and referred to questionable assets on the books of the company, such as Sky Jones art and pre-paid media due bills. Mr. X figured he had something that ITEX' accountants needed....
ITEX Corporation in exchange for the near-worthless assets. In this manner, ITEX thought it could eliminate $6 million in questionable assets from its balance sheet and replace them with appraised mining claims at roughly the same value-all for the meager price of $20,000 in cash and 50% of the proceeds from the Sky Jones collections...
Yet, during the same time period of 1995 & 1996, ITEX, under Baer's direction, advanced millions in credit lines to Neal's Wycliff and Newcastle, and to their joint subsidiary, Bailey Mutual Fund. It was through these entities that ITEX acquired most of the "bon-fire quality" Sky Jones art and due bills, paying Neal over $6 million in securities...
3 I was able to trace at least 10 of the Sky Jones paintings to an individual in Michigan, who stated that he had traded the paintings in exchange for $500,000 worth of real estate deeds in Michigan. He said the party who sold him the paintings was David Newren, the same person who had signed the worthless due bills. When I told this person that I was afraid the Sky Jones art was not worth $500,000, he responded, "well those real estate deeds I gave them aren't worth no $500,000 either!"
4 During the SEC investigation of ITEX, it was revealed by Michael Whipple, AKA Sky Jones, that Whipple created his own appraisals of his own art using the pseudonym "Joseph Banker", appraising each piece as high as $50,000 or more, when, in reality, none of the art had ever been sold on the open market for cash. Furthermore, according to one witness I interviewed, much of the art bearing the "Sky Jones" name was in fact created by homeless people by mass production in Salt Lake City who were being employed at minimum wage by David Newren. Whipple also testified that at the time, he was living in a Ft. Worth, Texas warehouse with no running water, and ate three days a week at a Salvation Army soup kitchen.
As the article stated... aka "Sky Jones" still uses "Banker's Art Museum" http://www.bankersart.com (registered in Salt Lake City, UT) to promote himself and his "artwork."
More to come...
We're entitled to our own opinions --but not our own facts.
