A one-time California man who bilked wine collectors out of thousands and thousands by promoting cheaper booze he rebottled in his kitchen has been deported to his native Indonesia, U.S. immigration officers stated Tuesday.Rudy Kurniawan, 44, was deported final week on a business flight from Dallas/Fort Value Worldwide Airport to Jakarta, in line with an announcement from U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement.“He’s a public security menace due to his aggravated felony conviction,” the assertion stated.Kurniawan got here to the US on a scholar visa within the Nineteen Nineties. He unsuccessfully sought political asylum and was ordered to voluntarily depart the nation in 2003 however stayed on illegally, authorities stated. Associated video: Do People Pair Their Wine with Meals or TV? The Reply May Shock YouKurniawan, whose household gained wealth working a beer distributorship in Indonesia, was convicted of mail and wire fraud in 2013 in a New York federal courtroom and spent seven years in jail. He was deported after being launched from jail into immigration custody final November.In a public black eye for the wine business, prosecutors at Kurniawan’s New York trial stated he made thousands and thousands of {dollars} from 2004 to 2012 by placing less-expensive Napa and Burgundy wines into counterfeit bottles at his residence within the Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia.The scheme was recounted within the 2016 documentary, “Bitter Grapes,” and in a March episode of “The Con.” Kurniawan’s trial featured testimony from billionaire yachtsman, entrepreneur and wine investor William Koch, who stated he was conned and cheated by Kurniawan into paying $2.1 million for 219 pretend bottles of wine. A wine knowledgeable testified that 19,000 counterfeit wine bottle labels representing 27 of the world’s greatest wines have been collected from Kurniawan’s property. An FBI raid on the house in 2012 additionally turned up lots of of bottles, corks and stamps.Kurniawan constructed a status as a purchaser and vendor of uncommon wines and netted tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} at wine auctions. Different collectors dubbed him “Dr. Conti” for his love of a Burgundy wine, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.In a single public sale in 2006, Kurniawan bought $24.7 million of wine, a file for a single consignee.Nevertheless, the scheme started to unravel after a number of consignments he submitted for public sale have been discovered to be pretend. In 2007, Christie’s public sale home in Los Angeles pulled a consignment of what was presupposed to be magnums of 1982 Château Le Pin after the corporate stated the bottles have been pretend.In 2008, 22 plenty of Domaine Ponsot wine valued at greater than $600,000 have been pulled from a sale amid questions on their authenticity.One bottle of Domaine Ponsot that Kurniawan tried to promote at public sale in 2008 was handed off as having been made in 1929, regardless that the winemaker didn’t start property bottling till 1934. Others have been billed as having been bottled at a selected winery between 1945 and 1971, regardless that Domaine Ponsot stated it didn’t begin utilizing that winery till 1982.Kurniawan additionally as soon as consigned to an public sale extra magnums of a 1947 Château Lafleur than have been truly produced, prosecutors stated.In all, Kurniawan could have bought as many as 12,000 bottles of counterfeit wine, lots of which can nonetheless stay in collections.Prosecutors stated cash from the fraud funded a lavish way of life in suburban Los Angeles that included a Lamborghini and different luxurious automobiles, designer clothes and positive meals and drinks. The federal government seized his belongings.At his sentencing, Kurniawan was ordered to pay $28.4 million in restitution to seven victims and to forfeit $20 million in property.
A one-time California man who bilked wine collectors out of thousands and thousands by promoting cheaper booze he rebottled in his kitchen has been deported to his native Indonesia, U.S. immigration officers stated Tuesday.
Rudy Kurniawan, 44, was deported final week on a business flight from Dallas/Fort Value Worldwide Airport to Jakarta, in line with an announcement from U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement.
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“He’s a public security menace due to his aggravated felony conviction,” the assertion stated.
Kurniawan got here to the US on a scholar visa within the Nineteen Nineties. He unsuccessfully sought political asylum and was ordered to voluntarily depart the nation in 2003 however stayed on illegally, authorities stated.
Associated video: Do People Pair Their Wine with Meals or TV? The Reply May Shock You
Kurniawan, whose household gained wealth working a beer distributorship in Indonesia, was convicted of mail and wire fraud in 2013 in a New York federal courtroom and spent seven years in jail. He was deported after being launched from jail into immigration custody final November.
In a public black eye for the wine business, prosecutors at Kurniawan’s New York trial stated he made thousands and thousands of {dollars} from 2004 to 2012 by placing less-expensive Napa and Burgundy wines into counterfeit bottles at his residence within the Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia.
The scheme was recounted within the 2016 documentary, “Bitter Grapes,” and in a March episode of “The Con.”
Kurniawan’s trial featured testimony from billionaire yachtsman, entrepreneur and wine investor William Koch, who stated he was conned and cheated by Kurniawan into paying $2.1 million for 219 pretend bottles of wine.
A wine knowledgeable testified that 19,000 counterfeit wine bottle labels representing 27 of the world’s greatest wines have been collected from Kurniawan’s property.
An FBI raid on the house in 2012 additionally turned up lots of of bottles, corks and stamps.
Kurniawan constructed a status as a purchaser and vendor of uncommon wines and netted tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} at wine auctions. Different collectors dubbed him “Dr. Conti” for his love of a Burgundy wine, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.
In a single public sale in 2006, Kurniawan bought $24.7 million of wine, a file for a single consignee.
Nevertheless, the scheme started to unravel after a number of consignments he submitted for public sale have been discovered to be pretend. In 2007, Christie’s public sale home in Los Angeles pulled a consignment of what was presupposed to be magnums of 1982 Château Le Pin after the corporate stated the bottles have been pretend.
In 2008, 22 plenty of Domaine Ponsot wine valued at greater than $600,000 have been pulled from a sale amid questions on their authenticity.
One bottle of Domaine Ponsot that Kurniawan tried to promote at public sale in 2008 was handed off as having been made in 1929, regardless that the winemaker didn’t start property bottling till 1934. Others have been billed as having been bottled at a selected winery between 1945 and 1971, regardless that Domaine Ponsot stated it didn’t begin utilizing that winery till 1982.
Kurniawan additionally as soon as consigned to an public sale extra magnums of a 1947 Château Lafleur than have been truly produced, prosecutors stated.
In all, Kurniawan could have bought as many as 12,000 bottles of counterfeit wine, lots of which can nonetheless stay in collections.
Prosecutors stated cash from the fraud funded a lavish way of life in suburban Los Angeles that included a Lamborghini and different luxurious automobiles, designer clothes and positive meals and drinks. The federal government seized his belongings.
At his sentencing, Kurniawan was ordered to pay $28.4 million in restitution to seven victims and to forfeit $20 million in property.
