{"id":5434,"date":"2014-08-08T15:04:17","date_gmt":"2014-08-08T22:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=5434"},"modified":"2014-08-08T20:36:00","modified_gmt":"2014-08-09T03:36:00","slug":"prominent-wine-dealer-sentenced-10-years-federal-prison-selling-counterfeit-wine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=5434","title":{"rendered":"Prominent Wine Dealer Sentenced to 10 Years in Federal Prison for Selling Counterfeit Wine"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK<\/strong> — A prominent wine dealer who sold millions of dollars of counterfeit wine was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in prison, officials said.<\/p>\n

\"Rudy<\/a>
Rudy Kurniawan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wine Dealer Rudy Kurniawan<\/strong> operated an elaborate scheme in which he manufactured and sold counterfeit bottles of \u00a0purportedly rare and expensive wine for millions of dollars, officials said.<\/p>\n

He also fraudulently got a $3 milion loan from a financing company, officials said.<\/p>\n

In addition to the prison sentence, Kurniawan, 37, of Arcadia, California, was ordered to forfeit $20 million and to pay restitution to his victims of $28.4 million.<\/p>\n

Kurniawan was found guilty in December 203 following a one-week jury trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cRudy Kurniawan planned and executed an intricate counterfeit wine scheme, mixing cheaper, more common wines, bottling the mixture into old bottles with fake labels, and then fraudulently selling those bottles for millions of dollars,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. “Now, Kurniawan will trade his life of luxury for time behind bars.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Selling Counterfeit Wine<\/strong><\/p>\n

Officials said Kurniawan collected fine and rare wines, and rose in the wine business to become one of the most prominent and prolific dealers in the United States of purportedly rare and expensive wine.<\/p>\n

From 2004 through 2012, officials said he engaged in a systematic scheme to defraud wine collectors and others by selling and attempting to sell numerous counterfeit bottles of purportedly rare and expensive wine.<\/p>\n

Kurniawan manufactured counterfeit bottles of rare and vintage wine at his home in Arcadia, California, operating what was, in effect, a counterfeit wine laboratory. \u00a0He would mix and blended lower-priced wines so that they would mimic the taste and character of rare and far more expensive wines, according to officials.<\/p>\n

Kurniwan then poured his creations into empty bottles of rare and expensive wines that he obtained from various sources and created a finished product by sealing the bottles with corks and outfitting the bottles with counterfeit wine labels he created, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Kurniawan then sold and attempted to sell these counterfeit bottles of wine at auctions and in direct sales to wealthy wine collectors. Kurniawan earned millions of dollars through the sale of these counterfeit bottles of wine.<\/p>\n

\"Rudy<\/a>
Rudy Kurniawan (Photo from Best Wines Under 20)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kurniawan Lived a Lavish Lifestyle<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2007, he threw a 60th-birthday party for his mother at M\u00e9lisse, a posh restaurant in Santa Monica. Kurniawan rented out the entire place and supplied all of the wines from his own cellar, according to 2012 \u00a0indepth-article in Vanity Fair.<\/a><\/p>\n

Among the guests was the actor Jackie Chan; at one point Chan stood on a chair holding a jer\u00adoboam of Ch\u00e2teau P\u00e9trus and shouted, \u201cRudy, you are the best!\u201d Lots of collectors seemed to agree.<\/p>\n

The magazine described the crime as the “largest case of fine-wine fraud in history.”<\/p>\n

Fraudulently Getting a Loan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Officials said Kurniawan also devised and carried out a scheme to fraudulently obtain a $3 million loan from a financing company located in New York City that specialized in extending loans that are secured by valuable collectibles, such as art and wine.<\/p>\n

He got the loan by providing false information to, and concealing material information from, the financing company, including falsely omitting approximately $7.4 million in outstanding loans, falsely representing his annual expenses, and falsely representing that he was a permanent resident of the United States when he had no legal immigration status in the United States and had, in fact, been ordered by an immigration court to leave the country years earlier, officials said.<\/p>\n

The case was investigated by the FBI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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