Kurniawan lawyers seek to omit FBI evidence

Alleged wine fraudster Rudy Kurniawan’s defense lawyers have asked US federal district judge Richard Berman to omit evidence obtained in an FBI search of Kurniawan's LA home due to issues over the legality of the search. As reported on db.com, Kurniawan is working to have evidence of an elaborate laboratory for counterfeit wines in his home excluded from his trial.

His lawyers are to contest the legality of an FBI search of his LA home after his arrest in a Los Angeles suburb in March. Kurniawan appeared at a brief hearing in a Manhattan federal courtroom last week wearing khaki prison clothing and midnight blue tennis shoes, the Wine Spectator reports.

At the hearing, Berman set a schedule for filings by the two sides, which will culminate on 14 November in the defense's expected motion to suppress the results of the FBI's search. During the search, agents found a home laboratory filled with thousands of fake labels dating back to 1899, including all the Bordeaux first growths and fine Burgundies such as Domaine Ponsot.

The operation was fitted out with hundreds of used corks, foil capsules and hardened wax which, when heated, could seal the mouths of bottles. There were also hundreds of rubber stamps for vintage dates, ranging from Château Latour 1899 to Screaming Eagle 1992, and stencils to imprint the names of famous wine estates on wooden cases.

According to a source close to the defense, FBI agents had an arrest warrant but not a search warrant when they entered Kurniawan’s home on 8 March. "It's one thing if you search a person, or a car, but a person's home is sacrosanct. If our motion is granted, and evidence is suppressed, it's a different case,” the source told the Wine Spectator.

"Our motion is being made to ensure that the Constitution is being honored in the letter and spirit in this case. Other than that, we will let our court papers do the talking,” Kurniawan's lead attorney Michael Proctor said of suppressing the search. Kurniawan is being held without bail at a Brooklyn federal detention facility.

Ponsot: “Rudy Kurniawan had an accomplice”

The plot thickens... Laurent Ponsot of Domaine Ponsot in Burgundy has spoken out about the Rudy Kurniawan wine fraud case, claiming he knows the identity of an accomplice in the the Indonesian collector’s alleged crimes – as reported earlier this week on thedrinksbusiness.com. “Rudy has been advised by someone with extensive knowledge of Burgundy. I know who it is, but in the current state of the investigation, I keep this information secret,” Ponsot told Vanity Fair. “Rudy himself should denounce his informants and his accomplices.” Ponsot added. 

One possible accomplice is Kurniawan’s Burgundy-born friend and former business associate Paul Wasserman, who met Kurniawan in 2002. Managing a wine shop Kurniawan bought in LA, Wasserman educated the young collector in the intricacies of Burgundy. “He would call me regularly for buying advice and insights into producers, vineyards and vintages. He was avid for information and I was an excellent source for him,” Wasserman told Vanity Fair. 

Defending himself on wine writer Mike Steinberger’s Wine Diarist website, Wasserman denied any knowledge of Kurniawan’s counterfeiting activities and apologised for “any unwitting role” that may have contributed to the scandal. Wasserman claims he and the now 35-year-old Kurniawan fell out at the end of 2008. Having been indicted by a federal jury in New York on 9 May, details emerged about Kurniawan’s counterfeiting methods. 

Known for asking for the empty bottles of the old and rare wines he drank at Cru restaurant in New York, Kurniawan had been refilling the bottles with blends he made from lesser wines, including large quantities of négociant Burgundy from the ‘50s and ‘60s, many of which were bought from Beaune-based merchant Patriache. “Rudy emptied the cellar of Patricache,” a French merchant told VF, adding, “He had a certain respect for the product; you might say he was a gentleman thief.” Ponsot believes 80% of pre-1980 Burgundy being sold at auction today is fake.

According to Mike Steinberger, author of the Vanity Fair article, Kurniawan’s arrest raises uncomfortable questions for John Kapon, head of auction house Acker Merral & Condit. “Kurniawan played a central role in Acker Merral’s rise, and much of the discussion among industry insiders has focused on Kapon’s part in the scandal,” Steinberger wrote. In April 2008, 97 bottles of Domaine Ponsot belonging to Kurniawan were withdrawn at the last minute by Kapon from an Acker auction at Cru in New York.

Among the lots was a bottle of 1929 Ponsot Clos de la Roche, a grand cru the domaine didn’t produce under its own label until 1934, and 38 bottles of Ponsot Clos Saint-Denis from 1945 to 1971, despite the estate not making the wine until 1982. Ponsot had flown in from France especially for the auction, believing he needed needed to be in the room in order to prevent their sale. 

The 58-year-old proprietor admitted to Steinberger that he felt “a bit of glory” at the fact that Kurniawan deemed his wines worthy of counterfeiting. “You don’t copy Swatch. You copy Breitling and Rolex,” he said, though conceded that the fraud felt like “an attack on the terroir and spirit of Burgundy.” Kurniawan faces up to 80 years in prison. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on 23 May. 

Rudy Kurniawan indicted

Alleged wine counterfeiter Rudy Kurniawan has been indicted by a federal grand jury in New York on four counts and faces extradition to the East Coast state. As reported on db.com Kurniawan was formally accused by the jury of mail and wire fraud to sell counterfeit wine, defrauding a finance company, double pledging collateral, and scheming to defraud a California wine collector and a New York auction house.



The charges were filed by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Kurniawan, 35, has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles since his arrest by the FBI on 8 March at his home. According to a source in the US Department of Justice, Kurniawan will be imminently extradited to New York in a government plane by a federal marshal.



The indictment details how Kurniawan, an Indonesian national, allegedly “assisted in the creation of counterfeit wines” in a home laboratory. It describes Kurniawan as a wizard at concocting fake wines by mixing and matching younger, less valuable wines “that mimicked the taste, colour and character of rare and expensive wines.” 



The indictment alleges that during a search of his home, the FBI found evidence of numerous bottles being counterfeited, including a California Pinot Noir that Kurniawan had marked as “40’s/50’s DRC, ” referring to Burgundy estate Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. Agents also found thousands of counterfeit labels for wines dating as far back as 1899, including labels for all the Bordeaux first growths as well as Burgundies such as Domaine Ponsot. 

The home operation was fitted out with hundreds of used corks, foil capsules and hardened wax which, when heated, could seal the mouths of bottles. There were also hundreds of rubber stamps for vintage dates, ranging from Château Latour 1899 to Screaming Eagle 1992. The FBI also found empty bottles of fine and rare wines ready to be filled and “recycled”. Several shipments of empty bottles were mailed to Kurniawan at his request by a New York restaurant he frequented.



Two auctions play a major part in the case against Kurniawan. In April 2008, 22 lots of purported Domaine Ponsot wines were withdrawn at the insistence of Laurent Ponsot, proprietor of the Burgundy estate, from an Acker Merrall & Condit sale. This February, 78 bottles of wine listed as DRC were withdrawn from a Spectrum auction in London. The indictment alleges the wines were fakes, consigned by a paid “straw man” for Kurniawan.



If Kurniawan were to be convicted on all charges, he could face up to 100 years in jail. More likely, according to sentencing guidelines, he would face 87 to 108 months. Asked about his client’s state of mind, Kurniawan’s lawyer, Michael Proctor of Caldwell Leslie & Proctor said: “He’s strong, very strong.”