Bourgogne Wine fraud: 10 years jail for wine expert

Posted on August 8, 2014 by bill

Dix ans de prison pour le fraudeur aux vins de Bourgogne

par Rédaction de France Info vendredi 8 août 2014.
De grands Bourgogne comme de la Romanée-Conti ont été contrefaits
De grands Bourgogne comme de la Romanée-Conti ont été contrefaits © MAXPPP. Rare Bourgognes like Romanée-Conti were counterfeit.

Rudy Kurniawan passait pour être l’un des cinq plus grands experts en vins au monde. Il avait réussi à contrefaire des grands Bourgogne. Un tribunal fédéral de Manhattan l’a condamné jeudi soir à dix ans de prison.

Rudy Kurniawan is perhaps in the top five of wine experts in the world. He had been successful in counterfeiting the major Bourgogne wines. A federal court in Manhattan has, on Thursday evening, sentenced him to ten years in prison.

Il avait amassé des dizaines de millions de dollars en vendant des grands crus qui n’étaient en fait que des mélanges de vins plus ordinaires. A New York, la sentence est tombée : le plus grand et plus célèbre faussaire en vins de tous les temps  -Rudy Kurniawan-  passera 10 ans en prison et devra rembourser près de 30 millions de dollars aux collectionneurs. Le juge Richard Berman espère que la lourdeur de la peine dissuadera les autres faussaires.

Laurent Ponsot du domaine éponyme et deux autres célèbres vignerons bourguignons, Christophe Roumier et  Aubert de Vilaine du domaine de la Romanée-Conti, avaient été les témoins à charge de Rudy Kruniawan.

Car cette fraude concernait de près les grands vignerons français. Kurniawan disait dénicher des vins rares dans “sa cave magique”. En réalité, les procureurs ont établi que l’homme d’affaire indonésien assemblait et fabriquait des vins de qualité inférieure qu’il mettait ensuite en bouteille avant de les revendre sous de fausses étiquettes prestigieuses.

Le vent tourne en 2008 pour le faussaire

Mais en 2008, il est pris la main dans le sac alors qu’il tente de vendre aux enchères, à New-York, un lot d’au moins 84 bouteilles présentées comme des crus prestigieux du Domaine Ponsot, en Côte d’Or. Il propose notamment des Clos Saint-Denis datés de 1945 à 1971. Problème, les premières bouteilles du domaine remontent à 1982. Alerté par Douglas Barzelay, avocat et collectionneur américain, Laurent Ponsot le propriétaire du domaine, avait alors fait le voyage et réussi à stopper la vente. 

 

About bill

Worked in the technical / engineering area as a Science Laboratory Technician and as an Aeronautics Engineer. The artistic side involves writing under the nom de plume of Billy Olsenn, his recently written play 'A Case of Wine' was staged by the players group Straight Make-Up at the 2012 Birr one act drama festival. It's next staging was in the one act circuit is in Cavan, at Maudebawn on Sat 10 Nov 2012. Then it was performed in the Bray, Co.Wicklow at the very popular one act festival in January 2013. Next play is FEAR. A dark tale about revenge on the cruel death of two pensioners by young thugs. Neighbours hatch a devious and dangerous plan to exact old-style revenge. Bill is a member of the Drama League of Ireland and his plays have been critically vetted and certified as original pieces of work by the DLI. Another literary project is that of commemoration of an aircraft crash on Djouce mountain in Wicklow in 1946. Bill wrote articles for the 50th, 60th and most recently the 70th anniversary, (12 Aug 2016) all were published in the Wicklow Times and ensured the survivors of the crash, all French Girl Guides, were not forgotten. Articles reproduced on this website. But mostly this site gives a more general European and specific French slant on popular and not so popular articles of French news, translated to English by the author. Each article is translated on a paragraph by paragraph basis so easy to read in either language and even possible to improve either language by comparison of the short English and French paragraphs. Amusez vous bien. The author is currently writing an easy to read technical aviation book centered around the Fokker 50. Another interest is that dealt with in another of Bill's websites www.realnamara.net, a Statue of the mother of God, Mary. It was erected in 1972 in Dublin, at the end of the Bull Wall near Clontarf, and my grandfather William Nelson, was the main instigator of that project. I give talks on the history of the statue and my grandfather's adventurous and dangerous life at sea. Technical assistance with each website is by J O'N.
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