NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A Manhattan man was charged on Tuesday for devising a murder-for-hire plot that resulted in the targeted death of his estranged husband in Brazil last year, prosecutors said.
Daniel Sikkema, 54, was previously charged with passport fraud by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, but a superseding indictment unsealed Tuesday added multiple counts of conspiracy and murder-for-hire resulting in death to his rap sheet.
Describing the crime in a statement, U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon said: “In the midst of a tense divorce, Daniel Sikkema allegedly financed the premature death of his estranged husband. The defendant allegedly hired a hitman to facilitate the international murder of his husband, and attempted to conceal his involvement in this callous plan.”
According to the allegations in the superseding indictment, Sikkema met with a hitman in 2023 and agreed to pay a fee for the murder of his husband, prominent art dealer Brent Sikkema. Brent Sikkema—a 75-year-old American citizen who had amassed a multi-million-dollar estate—ran a gallery in Manhattan now known as Sikkema Malloy Jenkins.
At the time the plot was formed, Sikkema and his husband were engaged in a contentious divorce, prosecutors said.
Sikkema, an American and Cuban citizen, allegedly sent payments to the hitman and the hitman’s romantic partner in Cuba, concealing the source of each payment by using either a stolen identity or an intermediary.
The victim owned a townhouse in Rio de Janeiro he regularly traveled to, and on Jan. 14, 2024, he was murdered inside that Brazil property, prosecutors said.
In the following days, Sikkema allegedly continued to communicate with the hitman and arranged another payment of about $5,000.
He also promised to make an additional payment at a later date, prosecutors said, but the hitman was arrested by Brazilian law enforcement on Jan. 18, 2024, for his involvement in the murder.
Authorities discovered Brent Sikkema’s body with 18 stab wounds and, after a manhunt, arrested 30-year-old Alejandro Triana Prevez, his former body guard. According to the New York Times, Prevez was spotted on surveillance footage entering and exiting the home.
During the investigation last year Brazilian police turned their attention to Sikkema, but his attorney, Richard Levitt, said in an email to the New York Times on Tuesday that his client “now as always maintains his innocence and looks forward to his complete vindication at trial.”
If convicted, Sikkema faces a mandatory penalty of life in prison or death, prosecutors said.
“The FBI will continue to vigorously investigate any individual who selfishly and mercilessly orders the end to another's life, regardless of where the crime may occur,” Sassoon said.