A famous Beverly Hills watch dealer faces prison time over the charges

The man behind the notorious Beverly Hills mail-order watch business has pleaded guilty and faces up to 20 years in prison, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement Friday.

Anthony Farrer, owner of Timepiece Gentleman, defrauded dozens of customers out of more than $5.6 million, according to his guilty plea. He pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud by using customer funds to finance his lavish lifestyle and running a Ponzi-like scheme in which he took watches that customers asked him to sell by mail order and passed them on to other customers who paid him for the purchase. is watching them, prosecutors say.

He was arrested in November 2023 – following a report in The Times detailing multiple theft charges – and was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of mail fraud.

His business was simple: customers sent Farrer a watch and paid a small fee for his services. According to the Department of Justice, the fee was typically about 5% of the sale price of the watch.

However, several customers began to notice their watches disappearing from the Timepiece Gentleman website without notice or payment. Rumors circulated on social media.

Prosecutors said what customers, internet investigators and ultimately law enforcement discovered was essentially a Ponzi scheme.

“Farrer took clients’ money and used it for other purposes, including financing his lavish lifestyle,” Martin Estrada, U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said in a statement. Estrada said this includes purchasing or leasing luxury cars and apartments.

A March 2022 screenshot of Anthony Farre being interviewed after his home was targeted by burglars.

(KTLA)

In other cases, Estrada said, Farrer would use the watches as collateral for loans without the watch owners’ knowledge.

“When a customer who had sent him money asked Farrer about the status of the watch’s purchase, Farrer would often send him another watch to reassure the customer or lull him into a false sense of security about the status of the purchase,” Estrada wrote. One such conversation was detailed in a report by The Times prior to Farrer’s arrest.

In August, Farrer posted on social media about his debts, admitting that what he did was wrong.

“I’m spending other people’s money, I’m living beyond my means… I’ve been digging this hole for myself and it’s a $5 million hole,” he said in the video. “About $3 million of this debt is owed to two of my large clients. Someone who acted as an investor and I used his money to finance my lifestyle.

Farrer is scheduled to be sentenced on January 31. His scheme ensnared more than 40 victims, some of whom are now demanding the return of their watches.

Times staff writer Noah Goldberg contributed to this report.