A New York man was indicted Tuesday for allegedly hiring someone to kill his estranged husband, a wealthy art dealer, who was found brutally stabbed in Brazil last year. 

Daniel Sikkema, 54, was charged with one count of murder-for-hire resulting in death in connection with Jan. 14, 2024, death of his husband, Brent Sikkema, 75, who was found dead with 18 stab wounds in his Rio home. 

Daniel Sikkema, a U.S. and Cuban citizen, was further charged with one count of murder-for-hire conspiracy resulting in death, one count of conspiracy to murder and maim a person in a foreign country and passport fraud, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York announced in a superseding indictment. He had been previously charged in the district with passport fraud. 

The superseding indictment did not directly name Brent Sikkema, but he is identified in other court documents filed in the case. 

Daniel and Brent Sikkema were in the midst of a contentious divorce when Daniel Sikkema allegedly hired a hitman for the international murder and made concealed payments in an effort to hide his involvement, prosecutors said.

Daniel Sikkema allegedly made the murder-for-hire plan in 2023, according to prosecutors. He agreed to pay another person, who was not identified but referred to as “CC-1,” to kill Brent Sikkema in Brazil, according to prosecutors. At the time, Brent Sikkema was traveling regularly to Brazil and owned property in Rio. 

Daniel Sikkema allegedly sent multiple payments to CC-1 and their romantic partner in Cuba to facilitate the murder plan. He concealed the source of the payments, “by using either a stolen identity or an intermediary to send the payment,” according to the indictment.

The indictment alleges that CC-1 snuck into Brent Sikkema’s Rio de Janeiro townhouse on Jan. 14, 2024 and stabbed him multiple times. In the following days, Daniel Sikkema and CC-1 communicated on several occasions, and Sikkema allegedly arranged for a $5,000 payment to be made to CC-1 through another individual, and promised an additional payment at a later date. 

CC-1 was arrested by Brazilian law enforcement on Jan. 18, 2024, for his involvement in Brent Sikkema’s murder. Rio state police identified the man arrested as Alejandro Triana Trevez last year. Local media said at the time the suspect was Cuban. 

Police said Trevez was on the run and was found resting in a gas station near the city of Uberaba, in the neighboring state of Minas Gerais. Police said at the time that Trevez allegedly took $3,000 from Sikkema’s home.

“As alleged, Daniel Sikkema and his co-conspirator planned and carried out a cold-blooded plot to murder Sikkema’s husband, a United States citizen, in Brazil. This Office will doggedly pursue justice against those who murder United States citizens, whether at home or abroad,” U.S. Attorney Danielle R. Sassoon said in a statement.

Daniel Sikkema was arrested Tuesday and pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to online court records.

If convicted, he faces a mandatory penalty of life in prison or death. An attorney for Daniel Sikkema did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Brent Sikkema was the co-owner of a prominent gallery in Manhattan, previously named Sikkema Jenkins & Co. The name changed to Sikkema Malloy Jenkins earlier this year. 

The gallery was originally founded in 1991 by Brent Sikkema as Wooster Gardens in Soho before it moved to its present location in Chelsea in 1999, according to the gallery’s website.