Before Brian Walshe Was on Trial for His Wife's Murder He Was a Big Spender — What Did He Do?

Friends of Ana Walshe told Boston Magazine they always thought she was the more impressive person in the marriage. Ana was married to Brian Walshe, a man who is on trial for her murder. In January 2023, she was reported missing by her employer, a high-end real estate company in Washington, D.C. Although Ana and Brian lived in Cohasset, Mass., she traveled to The District for work.

Brian and their three children couldn't join Ana because he was on house arrest after pleading guilty to federal fraud charges. Before Brian and Ana met, he was always flashing around a lot of cash, though he would occasionally bounce a check or two. Ana was eventually the sole provider for their family. This begs the question: What did Brian Walshe do for a living?

Several of Brian's former acquaintances spoke with Boston Magazine, painting a picture of a man who would do anything for attention. He tried to make a name for himself in the restaurant world, but it wasn't as a chef or owner. According to one pal, Brian just wanted to be known as a "big-ticket patron," and recalled one evening when he left behind his Breguet watch as collateral when he couldn't pay for a $6,000 tab at a restaurant.

There are numerous stories like that, wherein Brian would spend like there was no tomorrow. He once bought a $25,000 bottle of wine while dining at Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago. "He insisted on having chef’s tasting menus everywhere he went, regardless of whether it was even offered," said the friend. Local food writers once wrote about the time Brian ordered the entire inventory of truffles while at Deuxave in Boston.

When asked what he did for a living, Brian was always evasive. He told folks he was an art dealer. Technically, that was true. In 2011, while on a trip to South Korea, Brian convinced the family of a college friend to give him three Andy Warhols, two Keith Harings, and a Chinese statuette, plus all of the paperwork proving their authenticity. He promised to sell them, but hired a New York artist to copy the Warhol paintings. Brian started showing buyers the real Warhols, then selling the fakes.

Brian ran the art forgery scam for roughly five years until things came crashing down in November 2016. He sold forgeries of the Warhol paintings to L.A.’s Revolver Gallery. Its founder, Ron Rivlin, saw an ad for the paintings on eBay. The seller, Brian, was desperate to make money because he allegedly needed to do renovations on his house.

Rivlin sent his assistant to meet with Brian at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston. "Examine the canvases and then step away and call me with your impressions," Rivli told her. The paintings were screwed in tightly to their frames, but Rivlin's assistant assured him Brian was a "really cool guy." When Rivlin looked at the paintings, he knew they were fake. He got in touch with Brian, who transferred $30,000 to Rivlin. Brian owed another $50,000, which never came. That's when Rivlin called the FBI.

It took nearly a year and a half for the FBI to conduct its investigation into Brian. In May 2018, federal agents raided the home he shared with Ana and charged Brian with wire fraud. Brian was later caught in another scam that involved the death of his estranged father and the destruction of his will. Sentencing for the wire fraud charges was pushed back while authorities looked at this case. That was disrupted by the murder charges.