Feds bust dealer of phony French wines 

In this March 2, 2005 photo, wine collector Rudy Kurniawan participates in a wine tasting in Los Angeles. Kurniawan, an Indonesian millionaire who was once known as one of the world's up-and-coming collectors and dealers of rare wines, was arrested Thursday, March 8, 2012 and accused of trying to trick other wealthy buyers with more than $ 1.3 million worth of counterfeit bottles. (AP Photo/Los Angeles Times, Ricardo DeAratanha) NO FORNS; NO SALES; MAGS OUT; ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER OUT; LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS OUT; VENTURA COUNTY STAR OUT; INLAND VALLEY DAILY BULLETIN OUT; SAN BERNARDINO SUN OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT, TV OUT

Ricardo DeAratanha/Los Angeles T/via AP

Rudy Kurniawan was arrested in Los Angeles on a criminal complaint filed in Manhattan Federal Court that charges him with fraud.

Manhattan federal prosecutors have sniffed out a wine dealer who allegedly peddled fake vintage Burgundies as the real deal.

Rudy Kurniawan, 35, was charged with auctioning bogus wine for thousands of dollars, prosecutors said Thursday.

He was arrested in Los Angeles on a criminal complaint filed in Manhattan Federal Court that charges him with fraud.

In a 2008 auction in New York, he tried to hawk multiple lots of Domaine Ponsot wines, including one 1929 bottle at an asking price of $ 14,000 to $ 18,000, prosecutors said.

If all the fake wines he tried to auction were genuine, they would have been worth $ 1.3 million, the complaint said.

In 2006, the Los Angeles Times said Kurniawan's deep pockets and taste for old wines had caused prices for rare wines to skyrocket.

Read More @ Source



Fraudulent Stories Here

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Woman pictured in Te'o hoax talks about perpetrator

Image
Two of the people linked to an expansive hoax involving Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o attended the same Antelope Valley high school, according to the Southern California woman whose photos were used in the ruse. Diane O'Meara, who now works in marketing at STN Media Group in Torrance, spoke to NBC's "Today"  about the incident in a segment that aired Tuesday. In the segment, she said she met the supposed hoaxer, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, in high school but added that the two were not friends. Paraclete High football coach Norm Dahlia confirmed to The Times that Tuiasosopo played quarterback for the Lancaster school in 2007. A Deadspin.com report published last week first revealed the hoax but did not name O'Meara. The report claims that Tuiasosopo used photos of a girl he met at Paraclete High School in Lancaster as part of a Twitter account for a "Lennay Kekua," a fake woman whom he connected with Te'o. "My name is not Lennay Kek...
Keep reading

Iran Denies Space Monkey Phony

Image
After Iran announced last week that it had launched a monkey into space, web sleuths compared before and after photos of the furry astronaut and cried hoax. They claimed the monkey that made public appearances after the space flight in a bespoke suit looked nothing like the animal that had been shot into space, which seemed to have lighter fur and a mole above its eye. Did a monkey die in flight, asked the conspiracy theorists? Or did no primate ever leave the ground? Now the Iranian space agency has stepped forward to clear up any confusion. According to space official Mohammad Ebrahimi, it's true that the pictures don't match, and that they show two different monkeys. But Ebrahimi said that's not because of a hoax – it's because the pre-flight photo of a light-furred monkey was actually an archival photo and not a picture of the actual animal, Pishgam, who rode the rocket. According to the Iranians, Pishgam took a 20-minute flight and returned to earth s...
Keep reading

College Place Police Call Walmart Bomb Threat a Phony

Image
COLLEGE PLACE, Wash. - College Place Police are investigating an apparent bomb threat hoax at Walmart over the weekend.   Saturday night, police say the College Place Walmart called 911, reporting a bomb threat the store received, set to go off at 6:19 on Sunday morning. Officers and the College Place Fire Department arrived on scene and evacuated the store just before 1 AM that night. Officers and firefighters stayed there overnight blocking the doors, and didn't allow customers or employees back in until 7 AM.   Police say 6:19 came and went, but nothing exploded, no one got hurt, and they couldn't find any sort of explosive device, leading officers to believe the incident was an apparent hoax. Police say they don't know who made the threat, and while they're looking into leads, they don't have any potential suspects yet. Walmart returned to business as usual after 7 am on Sunday. Read More @ Source Sonic CD 510 (Earlies...
Keep reading