Don,
Based on my work experience and in speaking with other detectives, the IRS generally does not like to get involved in such cases. They prefer to stick with the easy to go after little fish. So for me, it’s no surprise they didn’t want to get involved.
BTW, that is an awful lot of cash that Rudy pissed through, both literally and figuratively.
Hmm, I wonder if Rudy might also have been trading in fake watches…
Eric:
You’re quite right. Hard to see where all of that $30 million in cash went. He put $1.5 million down on the Bel-Air house (but that was in July 2005). He put $1.5 million into buying his limited partnership interest in the de Montille vineyards. He bought somewhere on the order of $6.8 million in art and about $700,000 in watches and jewelry and roughly $350 to 500K in cars from 2008 to 2011. So where did the rest of it go?
Offshore hidden accounts??
Filtered through his kidneys?
Kevin:
While it is unforunately true that there are a lot of counterfeit 2007 through 2010 DRCs circulating in Europe, I’m somewhat doubtful that the 2009s you refer to came from the counterfeiting group based in Italy where the father-son team of counterfeiters was just arrested. I also don’t believe that the wines were sold to purchasers in Eastern Europe and then resold back to purchasers in France and Italy.
I’m the person that originally discovered the countefeit wines that led to the investigation in Europe and the arrests in Italy. The counterfeit wines that were offered in September of 2012 were exclusively DRC Romanee Conti and they were exclusively from the 1959 through 1978 vintages. The wines were offered by a well-known Italian seller of rare wines. That seller bought the wines from another well known Italian broker. It’s my understanding that the broker purchased from the counterfeiter father and son located in Italy, although that is yet unconfirmed, and Europol and the Italian gendarmerie aren’t sharing information about this. A month after the initial wines appeared in Italy, I saw some of the same wines offered by a broker in Paris. The Paris broker claimed the wines came from a collector in Italy. Again it was an older vintage, not 2009. DRC reported it to the French gendarmerie and one of the Italian resellers reported it to the Itlalian gendarmerie. Those two agencies brought in Europol and Eurojust.
According to the information that has been made public, the counterfeiting activity took place in Italy, but the police did find links to Russia, Hong Kong, Belize and Switzerland. The investigation also involved the Netherlands, Germany, Cyprus, the United Kingdom and France.
I suspect that the information you received about counterfeit 2009s concerns two of the three or possibly four remaining wine counterfeiting groups operating in Europe right now. A considerable number of counterfeit bottles of recent vintages of DRC are known to have come out of two of those groups.
Don,
My good friend who resides in Geneva, who has one of the biggest DRC collections, told me that he is responsible for discovering the counterfeit syndicate.
While we were in Bordeaux this March, he showed me a bunch of counterfeit 2009 RC pictures. This was offered by the guys who are arrested according to him. The wines were reviewed by Aubert and other Domaine staffs. He told me how he identify them as counterfeits but no need to reveal.
My understanding is that all the RCs are from 2004 to 2009.
Either way, it is just important to know that there are a lot of fake RCs circulating.
Expect to See a Flood of Counterfeit Selosse Champagne
As you likely heard, Selosse was recently broken into and the thieves stole 3700 bottles of Champagne. But what didn’t get a lot of notice initially is that the thieves also stole 16,000 labels and 12,000 bottle collars. Selosse himself is expecting a flood of counterfeits. See the article on Wine Searcher for more information. Thieves Raid Top Champagne House | Wine-Searcher News & Features
So they didnt seal the caps (plaques de muselet)?
Hi Don,
The Selosse theft is old news by more than half a year, and was discussed previously. Are you re-posting it now because you have reason to believe that counterfeits are starting to emerge on the market finally? (To be clear, I’m not being a jerk about this - I’m legitimately curious as to whether you have new information that caused you to call attention to Selosse now, as opposed to last spring.)
Thanks!
Scott:
My error on the date. This was prominently featured on the Wine Searcher “News and Features” bar yesterday when I went to search for a particular burgundy. I didn’t notice the date of the article.
I had heard the story before, but not with the additional wrinkle about labels and collars being stolen. Unless Selosse has decided to change his labels and collars, that’s a huge number of potential counterfeit bottles to be facing, especially going into high season for Champagne sales. It also put a number of the recent offers of Selosse champagne I’ve seen into a different perspective.
Got it - thanks for the clarification. I definitely agree Selosse fans need to remain on guard.
KURNIAWAN TRIAL UPDATE –
The Court held the pre-trial conference and heard the parties’ respective pretrial motions on November 19. Based on the Court’s written minute order, the court ruled on the parties respective pretrial motions as follows:
- Court rules as follows on the motions:
Court denies defense motion to dismiss;
Court denies defense motion to exclude acts outside the statute of limitations;
Court rules defense motion re: victims Acker Merrill and Condit and California Collector is moot;
Court denies governments motion to preclude re: lack of harm to Fine Art Capital;
Court grants governments motion to introduce evidence of defendants indebtedness as direct evidence of count two and as 404(b) evidence as to count one;
Court grants government motion for a Daubert hearing as to Mr. Collins; Daubert hearing is scheduled for 12/5/13 at 2:00 pm (subject to Mr. Collins availability - If Mr. Collins is not available on 12/5/13, then hearing will be held on 12/4/13.)
So Mr. Collins’ qualifications to testify as a wine authentication expert and his ability to offer the opinion described previously by Mr Kurniawan’s counsel (i.e. that counterfeit bottles sold by Rudy are identical to other counterfeits seen in the market before Rudy sold such wines) will be determined before the trial begins.
According to Peter Hellman, who attended the hearing, the parties indicated that the scheduled examinations by the parties’ respective psychiatrists and psychologists had not taken place as of November 19.
Talk about getting thrown under the bus…
http://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2013/12/witness-declares-80-of-seized-kurniawan-wines-are-fake
Lots of drama in the early days here. 80% of his wines examined are fake according to Collins and the prosecutors have multiple labels of the same wines seized from Rudy’s house. Exact copies. How is this going to help the defense? This will make a great movie.
This fits with prior indications from rhe defense team: they acknowledge that there were plenty of fakes that passed through Rudi’s hands, but he was an innocent dupe. Someone else did it. Good luck with that.
It still boggles the mind why Rudy didn’t cut a deal. Only thing I can think of is Rudy wouldn’t rat out others involved. What can the defense possibly stand to gain by taking this to trial?
Sounds like his world is collapsing. I almost feel sorry for him.
Maybe there are no others of import in Rudy’s scheme, aside from those who were unwitting or willingly suspended their disbelief. Maybe Rudy was the guy. And so, there isn’t much being offered by the prosecution. And what they might offer is so bad that he’s willing to take his chance on constitutional or other challenges and appeals along the way.
Who knows.