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California man sentenced to 10 years in prison over fake wine scheme California man sentenced to 10 years in prison over fake wine scheme
(about 1 hour later)
A California wine collector convicted of making up to $20 million on bogus bottles of wine has been sentenced in New York to 10 years in prison. A US collector convicted of making fake vintage wine in his California kitchen and selling it for tens of millions of dollars was sentenced Thursday to a decade in prison by a judge who said he wanted to send a message to others who might tamper with what people eat and drink.
A Manhattan federal judge on Thursday also ordered Rudy Kurniawan to forfeit $20m and pay $28.4 million in restitution. “The public at large needs to know our food and drinks are safe ... and not some potentially unsafe homemade witch’s brew,” US District Judge Richard M Berman said as he announced the prison term for Rudy Kurniawan.
He was convicted in New York in December of mail and wire fraud in a scheme prosecutors said ran from 2004 to 2012. Kurniawan, a 37-year-old Indonesian citizen of Chinese descent, was ordered to forfeit $20m and pay $28.4m in restitution.
Defense lawyers argued Kurniawan had already spent more than two years in prison and that was enough. Assistant US attorney Stanley Okula concluded that Kurniawan had caused losses close to $30m, primarily to seven victims. One was William Koch, a billionaire yachtsman, entrepreneur and wine investor.
Kurniawan, who was born in Indonesia, will be deported once he’s freed. Koch testified at Kurniawan’s December trial, when Kurniawan was convicted of mail and wire fraud.
Billionaire yachtsman, entrepreneur and wine investor William Koch says he lost more than $2 million in the fraud and spent millions more investigating it. Before he was sentenced, Kurniawan twice apologized, saying “I’m really sorry” and expressing a desire to take care of his mother, who lives in California after receiving asylum.
He said the wrongdoing merited serious punishment. Kurniawan, who moved to the United States at age 16, had his own request for political asylum turned down, and he was ordered deported in 2001. He continued to live in the United States after his appeal was rejected in 2003. He will be deported after he serves his sentence.
His lawyer, Jerome H Mooney, asked for leniency, saying his client got swept up in the thrill of mixing with California’s wealthiest people.
“He was insecure, very insecure,” Mooney said. “He wanted to be them. He wanted to be part of it.”
Mooney said Kurniawan used some of his family’s fortune to buy $40m of wine, eventually selling $36m of it before he realized he could develop a business in which he created mixtures that tasted like the world’s greatest wines.
“Nobody died. Nobody lost their savings. Nobody lost their job,” he said. The lawyer said the 2 1/2 years Kurniawan has served in prison was enough penalty, since he had lost everything.