Wednesday Dec 11 – Trial Day Three
Virtually the entire day was spent with the continuing examination of James Wynne of the FBI. The government introduced more than 300 exhibits today through Mr. Wynne. Most of his testimony was the continuing presentation of what the FBI found when it searched Rudy’s home on March 8, 2012.
The government proceeded quite quickly through most of it. We spent hour after hour looking at the following:
Multiple bags and containers full of used corks, capsules and labels of all types (but these were far fewer than the bags of new labels in stacks)
More photographs of what the FBI found and where they found it in Rudy’s house
Bag after bag after bag of stacks of newly produced labels of all of the rarest vintages of the top domaines from Burgundy and Bordeaux, some Jaboulet Hermitage La Chapelle and even some Screaming Eagle.
Bag after bag after bag of self adhesive “shield” neck labels in various vintage dates, bags and bags full of other neck labels, strip labels, back labels, and Nicolas cellars “Reserve” neck labels and “decante” back labels. Interestingly, the self-stick Nicolas labels came in printed plastic bags bearing the trade name Shirota on the front and what appeared to be Japanese writing on the packages.
Bag after bag full of every kind of stamp you could conceivably think of for counterfeiting wine – stamps to produce vintage years, stamps to produce serial numbers for bottles like Mouton Rothschild, DRC and Vogue, stamping machines to produce the infamous red circular Nicolas Cellars stamp, more stamps to produce the printing on corks, including to stamp the words Romanée Conti on corks.
Bags containing stamp pads in a variety of different colors
Bags of glues and adhesives
Soft Floss Laser Paper
Bags and bags and large plastic containers holding used capsules and corks and in a few cases new corks and temporary capsules.
At least a half dozen different devices to stamp the Domaine Romanée Conti logo onto wax capsules
Boxes of stick wax and other sealing wax in various colors
Three silver cups containing melted wax and evidence of scorching on the bottom
Bags containing lettering and numbering stencils and in some cases specific stencils describing a particular wine to be used on wood cases or cartons, with most with evidence of ink marks suggesting prior use
One recorking machine and approximately eight Ah So wine openers.
The supply of stacks of labels seemed endless and it was totally overwhelming. The most frequently repeated brand was DRC. Among the vintages included were 1900, 1911, 1915 and 1929 Les Gaudichots; Romanée Conti from 1899, 1900, 1906, 1911, 1923, 1926, 1929, 1935, 1936, 1945 and many other subsequent vintages; DRC Richebourg from 1919, 1923 and 1926 and DRC Romanée St. Vivant… The second most frequently repeated brand seemed to be Comte de Vogue Musigny (which was a slight surprise to me.) Again the vintages ranged from ancient through the 60s. Among the other burgundy brands were Roumier Bonnes Mares and Musigny (including 1923 Bonnes Mares Domaine Ancien Berlorgey), Rousseau, Ponsot and a few Henri Jayer labels and in one instance Hospices de Beaune Mazis Madame Collignon. The most frequently observed Bordeaux were Mouton , Latour, Lafite, Petrus and Cheval Blanc Petrus as well as Le Pin, Lafleur (in various sizes including big glass), La Mission Haut Brion and Latour a Pomerol.
Some of the labels were conventional labels but there were also many stacks of peel and stick labels. There was also bag after bag of neck labels, back labels, strip labels, small labels like Nicolas Reserve neck labels and the back “decante” labels. The Nicolas labels all came on printed sheets with self stick adhesive applied and in bags bearing the name of the company Shirota at the top and what appeared to be Japanese characters below.
Among the strip labels produced were a series of DRC importer strip labels which had the address of Percy Fox in the UK misspelled as Sackvilee Street, and another set of such strip labels where the name of Percy Fox was misspelled as Percy Foy. (Both of these defects of course appeared in the Spectrum/Vanquish auction.)
The government also presented multiple examples of documents seized from Kurniawan’s house which were written in Indonesian. [CLARIFICATION and FURTHER EXPLANATION:] Among the documents were a series of templates for counterfeit labels or scans of partially completed counterfeit labels which contained handwritten notations (in Indonesian) directing that the labels be re-produced or modified in certain very specific ways. Although no further explanation was provided to the jury, it seems to me that there are only two plausible ways to interpret these documents. They are either notes that Rudy wrote to himself in the Indonesian language directing himself to make specific changes in the templates, or they are notes which he wrote for transmission to one of his brothers (or someone else who speaks Indonesian) directing that the labels be produced or corrected in certain ways. In my opinion, based on the physical evidence produced and the absence of certain other evidence, it’s clear that someone other than Rudy was producing a good portion of the labels being applied by Rudy and that the handwritten notes were actually instructions to one of his brothers or someone else. Here is my reasoning/rationale:
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- There is no evidence in the record at all the two printers in Rudy’s house, one large and one small and neither of which was seized by the government, were capable of producing the particular labels found in the house which were presented to the jury. Moreover, the government didn’t present any evidence to the jury that either printer was a color printer.
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There was clear evidence that someone other than Rudy was producing at least some of the labels found in the house and presented to the jury. There were multiple bags of small “Reserve Nicolas” neck labels and the small Nicolas “Decante” back labels. These labels were all on self-adhesive paper sitting on yellow-colored backing with multiple labels on each sheet. Many sheets of the labels were packed together in small form-fitting plastic bags and each of those bags bore the name SHIROTA printed in large blue lettering on the top of each bag and a series of large characters in what appeared to be Japanese lettering running along the bottom of each bag. These bags were totally unlike the bags used by the FBI for the other labels and Mr. Wynne testified that the items contained in bags other than the clear ziploc bags used by the government were the original bags in which the items were found in Kurniawan’s house.
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A considerable portion of the thousands of main labels taken from Kurniawan’s home, and a considerable portion of the neck and strip labels, including the so-called “shield” neck labels with their three pointed crests, were printed on self-adhesive paper (i.e. they were “stick-on” labels). The government did not present a single sheet of self-adhesive label paper among the items found in the house during the search and did not present a single invoice for such items to Mr. Kurniawan (despite having invoices for wax, glue, and other items.)
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The government presented to the jury thousands (if not tens of thousands) of main labels in uniformly cut stacks. Based on my brief opportunity for examination, the labels were consistently sized and perhaps professionally cut. The government didn’t present to the jury any type of paper cutter and there was no unprinted label stock either. There wasn’t anything provided to the jury at all which would explain how Rudy could produce and cut the the three-pointed shield neck labels from his home.
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The government didn’t present a single document or template from Rudy’s computer that tied the labels the jury was presented in neat stacks to something actually generated on Rudy’s computer.
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Some of the language on Exhibits 1-14T, 1-20T and 1-21T strikes me as very unlikely if Rudy wrote these notes only for his own use. The language seems too lengthy for personal shorthand and there would be no reason to explain to yourself that a reminder/instruction you wrote to yourself is “very important” (as in Exhibit 1-21T
Another exhibit (Govt 1-83) was a sheet of yellow legal paper with the notation 45 M Oct Sale at the top which contained a whole series of stamped serial numbers in blue ink on the page, some with the letter M in front of them and others not along with a set of photographs previously admitted showing that Rudy Kurniawan sold bottles with those specific serial numbers in identical ink color stamped on bottles of 45 Mouton Rothschild at the Cellar II auction.
When our fingers and minds had become numb with the rapid and unrelenting presentation of items found during the search of the Kurniawan counterfeiting factory (aka his home), the government presented additional bottles seized from Rudy’s home which contained writing on the bottles in silver or gold ink suggesting that particular bottles could be used to counterfeit certain wines. 2006 Marcassin Blue Slide Pinot bore the notation “40s/50s DRC”. 2007 Duckhorn Merlot bore the writing “40s-60s Pomerol/Graves.” 1990 Laboure-Roi Gevrey Chambertin bore the notation “40s-50s DRC.”
The government also authenticated the production of Rudy’s emails on his hotmail account by Microsoft in response to the government’s subpoena and introduced emails between Rudy and Robert Bohr requesting that empty bottles of wines from Cru be shipped to Rudy’s home for an alleged photoshoot and an email from Rudy protesting vigorously when the bottles arrived broken. Another dramatic email (Exhibit 13-30) was from Rudy to John Kapon asking “Can u get Dar [Rudy’s brother Darmawan Saputra] 100 to 200 cases of cheap 80s bord? Like 81 to 88? $400 - $700 a case.”
The government also introduced a large number of invoices subpoenaed from third parties for repeated large purchases of wax in various colors, inkpads in various colors, glue and Ingress paper.
Near the end of Mr. Wynne’s direct testimony the government introduced Rudy’s Wells Fargo Bank and American Express Credit card accounts for 2007 and 2008 as well as a summary exhibit prepared by Mr. Wynne showing Kurniawan’s total Amex card expenditures on his personal Amex account in 2007 and 2008 and his purchases from a single vendor (Hermes) for those two years. The totals showed $6,007,898.04 in Amex credit card spending for 2007 and $2,461,870.35 in 2008. Mr Kurniawan’s personal spending at Hermes was $208,908.99 in 2007 and $3666,683.76 in 2008. Mr. Wynne further testified that based upon his review of the monthly billing statements there were over $100,000 in additional personal expenditures sized at least $1,000 or more from other vendors in 2007 and over $300,000 in such additional personal expenditures in 2008.
The government also introduced into evidence the computers seized from the Kurniawan residence and data CDs representing the data downloaded from the Kurniawan computers. Much of that data will be used in subsequent testimony we were told.
When the government’s direct examination was completed I spoke to many of the other media representatives and people attending the trial and everyone universally agreed that the case was essentially over for Rudy. The government’s evidence of Rudy’s direct involvement in counterfeiting was simply overwhelming and essentially undeniable. We all speculated about what Mr. Mooney would do to try to put on any type of cross-examination.
I suggested that I thought Mr. Mooney would try to take issue with some of the evidence about Rudy’s personal expenditures and beyond that, would merely cast aspersions about various trivial items found in Rudy’s home such as notebooks of tasting notes, a copy of Billionaire’s Vinegar and a copy of the March 2007 New York Times article about the Don Stott “authentication” tasting of Cellar I and Cellar II wines. For better or worse, my prediction was sadly prophetic. Mr. Mooney wasted two hours of time in a game of trivial pursuit with Mr. Wynne after our late lunch break while failing to ever mention any of the significant evidence found in the Kurniawan home.
During the cross-examination Mr. Mooney attempted to imply that Mr. Kurniawan had a wealthy family in Indonesia and that Rudy’s funds came from his family. On redirect Mr. Wynne testified that after considerable effort the FBI had been unable to confirm any source of wealth of any member of Rudy’s family. Mr. Wynne testified that all of the evidence seemed to point in the opposite direction. He testified that following the 2006 Acker sales Rudy transferred more than $12 million to his brother Darmawan Saputra and another $5 million to his brother Teddi Tan. He stated that in terms of money coming to Rudy from his relatives in Asia, the amounts of transfers to Rudy were fairly nominal in compariison with the amounts Rudy wired to his brothers. Mr. Wynne also testified that there was simply no evidence of any trust fund disbursements or otther regular transfers of money from members of Rudy’s family to Rudy.
One of the items that the government brought out on redirect examination was that at 12:30 am on March 8, 2012, hours before Rudy was arrested, he emailed a photo of four bottles of 1985 Jayer Richebourg to the owner of Weinart in Denmark offering to sell him the bottles. These were the same bottles which were found on the “photographic stand” in Rudy’s house when the government came to arrest Rudy just over five hours later.
At the very end of the day the government called Trenton Schmatz, a 17 year FBI agent and member of the FBI Computer Anaylsis Team to explain what had been done with the computers and electronic advices seized from Kurniawan’s residence and the data that was downloaded from them . That examination is ongoing and will resume later this morning.