Prominent wine dealer Rudy Kurniawan, age 37, of Arcadia, California, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for carrying out an elaborate scheme in which he manufactured and sold counterfeit bottles of purportedly rare and expensive wine for millions of dollars, and fraudulently obtaining a $3 million loan from a financing company.
Arizona Daily News reports Kurniawan was found guilty in December 2013 following a one-week jury trial before U.S. District Judge Richard Berman, who also imposed the sentence.
Kurniawan became one of the most prominent and prolific dealers in the United States of purportedly rare and expensive wine. From 2004 through 2012, he engaged in a systematic scheme to defraud wine collectors and others by selling and attempting to sell numerous counterfeit bottles of purportedly rare and expensive wine. Kurniawan manufactured counterfeit bottles of rare and vintage wine at his home in Arcadia, California, operating a counterfeit wine laboratory.
