BILLINGS – Just in time for the holiday shopping season, a portrait of Mother Teresa painted by a California con man who failed in his bid to take over an empty Montana jail is up for sale on the Internet auction site eBay.
Hardin officials signed a contract with 55-year-old Michael Hilton, of Santa Ana, Calif., for his company, American Police Force, to operate the city’s never-used jail and fill it with inmates. But the deal collapsed after media revelations about Hilton’s criminal background.
After an October hearing in a California court, Hilton turned over the painting to try to satisfy an outstanding civil judgment for fraud totaling nearly $700,000 in a separate case.
Attorney Cris Armenta, who is auctioning the painting on behalf of her client Rick Earnhart, wants at least $250 for the piece. Earnhart, of Menifee, Calif., loaned Hilton tens of thousands of dollars in what turned out to be a bogus real estate development deal.