Ken Walton

I was, in late 1998, a somewhat unproductive and very unhappy junior attorney, working for the third-largest law firm in Sacramento. Eager for any distraction, I began selling art on eBay, an avocation I learned from an old army buddy, Ken Fetterman, who seemed to be doing really well with it.

It started out innocently, but things quickly went awry. In May 2000, I forged the signature of Richard Diebenkorn onto a painting that resembled his work, and then auctioned it on eBay for $135,858. The New York Times put me on its front page, the FBI started investigating me, and I got in a lot of trouble.

With my legal career over, I started developing software, and soon started HammerTap, which (ironically) made tools for eBay users. The company was successful, but when eBay discovered I was the one running it, it threatened to sue me unless I sold it. And so I did.

This gave me time to start work on my book FAKE: Forgery, Lies, & eBay, which will be released on April 25, 2006.

I currently live in Sacramento, California. FAKE is my first book. I enjoyed writing it, and if you like it I may write more.