It was a weird aspect of the program - they had Whoopi Goldberg narrating (slightly odd in itself, but okay) but no “face” to appear on screen as one might with a reporter. Seemed like just a person to tie segments together with some useless commentary.
I’m sure to Don and others who know so many details that are also damning this was underwhelming, but I thought it was a reasonable short summary of the story, if overly dramatized at points. Probably would have been more interesting to have the focus be on uncovering the scam rather than Rudy’s excessibe ballin’.
ICE also released a photo of Rudy, snapped by ICE officials before he was placed on the plane.
The press release notes the revised priorities of ICE in deportations: “ICE is now implementing the interim civil immigration enforcement priorities directed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to focus its limited resources on threats to national security, border security and public safety. ICE continues to carry out its duty to enforce the laws of the United States in accordance with the Department’s national security and public safety mission.” However, as ICE explained, “He [Rudy] is a public safety threat because of his aggravated felony conviction.”
As readers of this thread know, Rudy has two surviving brothers, Teddy Susilo Tan, who (at least formerly) lived in Jakarta, and Darmawan Saputra (another alias, of another former Indonesian badminton champion), who resides in Hong Kong. Rudy’s two brothers received a total of $17 million of the $36 million in auction proceeds which Rudy received from Acker, Merrall & Condit in 2006 ($12 million was sent to Darmawan Saputra in Hong Kong and $5 million was sent to Teddy Susilo Tan in Jakarta). Teddy Susilo Tan was indicted and convicted in absentia by the Indonesian government in 2018 in connection with a Jakarta real estate fraud. He fled to Hong Kong, where he was interviewed by some Indonesian journalists in 2019. He insisted that he would return to Indonesia to deal with the charges, but apparently did not do so.
So, it’s not clear who met Rudy at the airport in Jakarta. Rudy definitely looks older, and hopefully he is much wiser now.
NEWS ON THE JEFERY LEVY V. HART DAVIS HART LAWSUIT:
The small claims court lawsuit filed by Jefery Levy against Hart Davis Hart on March 23, 2020, which (falsely) accused Hart Davis Hart and its Senior VP Allan Frischman of knowingly selling Levy a counterfeit bottle of 1955 Leroy Chambertin, was called for trial yesterday in the Santa Monica division of the Los Angeles Superior Court. The case was dismissed with prejudice.
The trial was originally scheduled for late December of 2020. It was continued because Jefery Levy is a licensed California attorney on “inactive status.” The Judge Pro Tem who was previously assigned to hear the case (volunteer attorneys who are selected by the Court to hear small claims matters) announced that since Mr. Levy is an attorney, he was prohibited from hearing the matter. The matter was then assigned to Judge Lawrence Cho of the Superior Court for trial (someone I have appeared before previously) and rescheduled for trial on April 13.
Both Mr. Levy and representatives of HDH appeared for the scheduled trial via the LACourtConnect system yesterday. Mr. Levy informed Judge Cho that he did not want to proceed and that he wished to dismiss the case. Judge Cho then entered a written order dismissing the action with prejudice.
Once it became clear that Hart Davis Hart would not succumb to Levy’s attempts to extort a settlement payment from them, Mr. Levy had nowhere left to go. As noted previously, Levy consumed and disposed of the purportedly counterfeit bottle of Leroy (which John Kapon rated a 97 point wine) and sued anyway. Virtually every fact that Mr. Levy published on multiple websites, including his own blog site and in this thread, which clearly defamed Hart Davis Hart and Allan Frischman, was demonstrably false. One of the HDH witnesses for the trial was an employee of Domaine Leroy, who was prepared to testify that the cork from the bottle claimed to be counterfeit by Mr. Levy matched the corks used by Leroy SA at the time and that, contrary to Mr. Levy’s claim, the 1955 Chambertin did not have the vintage stamped on the corks – unlike the counterfeits from Rudy Kurniawan, which did. As noted previously, and as chronicled in Peter Hellman’s book (In Vino Duplicitas: The Rise and Fall of a Wine Forger Extraordinaire), all of the prior bottles that Jef Levy had consumed previously were counterfeits that he bought from Rudy Kurniawan. The Rudy Kurniawan counterfeit 1955 Chambertin that Levy purchased actually had San Rafael misspelled on the purported Martines’s Wines strip labels on the bottles. As Jef Levy himself confirmed in the movie Sour Grapes, he simply refused to believe that his buddy Rudy Kurniawan could have sold him counterfeit wines, even when faced overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
So now I guess Mr. Levy can go back to his other bad behaviors.
HATERS (especially MAJOR HATER DON CORNFELD):
1.
Martine Saunier wrote me that: “CONSOLIDATED NEVER IMPORTED LEROY.”
2
The #1 BURGUNDY EXPERT IN THE WORLD wrote me that:
A.
In the hundreds/thousands of Leroy bottles he has examined he has never seen a CONSOLIDATED strip and it is “totally incorrect”
B.
The cork does not bear any resemblance to any 1955 cork he has ever seen – not the appropriate seepage
C.
The label looks wrong
D.
Also, with re: to cork: Martine and Bize-Leroy themselves told me that all 1955 corks were stamped 1955 in honor of Henri Leroys death that year – it was the
one exception until they began stamping the vintage on corks many years later
E.
Defective Wine Detective got all the numbers wrong with regard to the sale of the wine in question – and, even assuming his number were correct, why would
a person purchase a wine and then, 3 months later, sell the same bottle for 30 percent less? As Columbo would say, “would you do this? I wouldnt?”
ALSO:
Hater/mental defective wine detective has all the facts wrong – WTF? You can email me directly for the exact facts: jef@jeferylevy.com
Hater/mental defective wine detective why do you hate me and won’t even return my emails to discuss the issues? You are seriously FUCKED UP.
CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG:
I cannot find one wine expert or collector IN THE WORLD who has ever seen the Consolidated Spirits Import Strip on a Leroy Bottle – any bottle, whatsoever (including
Mental Defective Wine Detective).
It appears that the @rse kicking Jefe received the last time he posted here wasn’t harsh enough. I’m looking forward to Mr. Cornwell taking the gloves off this time.
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Seems like a post from a totally reasonable and sane person