Anything that has real or perceived value is likely to be the target of clever counterfeiters. Expensive, rare and collectible wine has been a target of scammers all down through the ages. In the early 2000s, one man managed to pour millions of dollars’ worth of fake wine into America’s elite wine market.
Rudy Kurniawan, having once tasted California’s wines, developed a passion for them. Settling in Los Angeles County, California, he bought expensive wines from shop owners, cultivating a deep friendship with them. He bought hundreds of bottles, at a cost of $400 to $500 apiece. He learned all he could from them — how wine was made, where it came from and what were the best wines. He was friendly and eager to learn. This was how he was introduced into the wealthy wine collectors’ world.
Because of his prolific spending and deep pockets, he was accepted into Los Angeles’ circle of the most prominent and wealthy men. He promptly set the pace by hosting wine-tasting parties, where it was not uncommon to drink $100,000 to $200,000 worth of expensive wine in an evening. Money didn’t seem to matter, as he often spent up to $1 million a month at wine auctions.
There were some odd things, like his vague answers as to where and how he had come by his money and his strange habit of requesting to keep the empty wine bottles after a tasting party ... but why get too concerned when the money is seemingly unlimited and the wine is flowing? Besides, he would often foot the bill for these lavish outings, so no one thought twice when a high-end restaurant in New York was asked to send him all of their empty bottles between 2004 and 2006.
As you would expect, all of this heavy buying in such a short time span sent the price of vintage, collectible wines soaring! Auction houses were delighted with this newfound source of revenue. Because of Kurniawan’s connections in the top echelon of the wine industry, he was trusted as an expert. His buying sprees did not go unnoticed, and in 2006 the Los Angeles Times ran a breathless article raving about this up-and-coming young man.
Kurniawan’s insatiable buying for his enormous collection was the central cause of the astronomical increase in the price of vintage Burgundy and Bordeaux wines. In a few short years, from 2001 to 2006, vintage wine increased in auction sales worldwide from $90 million to $300 million. Collectors were particularly eager for Burgundies — in 1996 a bottle would sell for $400, but just 10 years later the same bottle would sell for $13,000!
Having helped to drive up the price of vintage collectable wines, Kurniawan now decided that it was the opportune time to sell, and sell he did! Through his rich circle of friends, he was introduced to John Kapon, who ran Acker Merrall & Condit, a boutique wine auction house in New York City.
In 2006, they ran two auctions featuring Kurniawan’s hard-to-find, years-old vintage wines that he had supposedly collected over the years. The first auction netted $10.6 million in sales and the second more than $24.7 million in sales, setting a record for sales in the wine auction industry. Many saw no reason to doubt the source of the wines being sold.
It’s Easy to Be Deceived
Friend, the truth of the matter is that we can all be terribly deceived if we are not exceedingly careful. This holds especially true as to our eternal well-being. There is deception in religion, in tradition, in false teachers, in Satanic lies and visions and especially in unbelief. All of these deceptions will land you in hell, eternally separated from a God who loved you enough to send His one and only Son, the Lord Jesus, to die on the cross for your sins. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:66Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)).
With this new river of wealth, he bought a top-of-the-line car, $535,000 worth of expensive watches and an $8 million mansion in Bel Air! Finally, some clear-headed observers in the wine industry began to have doubts and to ask questions. Why were 10 bottles of one 1945 vintage sold when there were only 12 bottles known to be in existence? The chances of Kurniawan scrounging up that many were highly unlikely! Then, two auction houses removed Kurniawan batches of wines under charges by a company and a vineyard owner that they were counterfeits. But this was just the beginning of an avalanche of trouble for Kurniawan.
It would take a billionaire, a vineyard owner and the FBI to bring Kurniawan’s flooding the market with fake wine to light. The billionaire, Bill Koch, discovered that $75,000 worth of wine that he purchased at a 2007 auction was fake. He hired an investigator to look into Kurniawan’s past. The vineyard owner, Laurent Ponsot, flew in from France to contest a 2007 auction because the Kurniawan wine being sold was for the years 1945 and 1971. Their vineyard had not produced that wine until 1982! By 2010 and millions of dollars later, both men had joined up with the FBI to uncover the source of the flood of fake Burgundies on the market.
The Reckoning
In spite of the gathering storm clouds, Kurniawan continued his fraudulent ways, selling over $25.7 million of supposedly extremely rare wine to wealthy private collectors. But in spite of his apparent success, court documents showed that he was $11 million in debt, to the point where he was defaulting on loans and begging his wealthy friends to bail him out!
Whether in this world or the next, sin will come to light and be judged. Because God is holy, He cannot allow unjudged sin in His presence. This is true for both the deceiver and the deceived. “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:1212So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. (Romans 14:12)). We must decide: Are we going to be deceived by Satan’s many lies as to how to get to heaven, or are we going to seek out the truth for ourselves? God’s Word tells us, “Ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:1313And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)).
The truth is that Jesus is the ONLY way to God. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:1212Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)). Jesus suffered, bled and died on Calvary’s cross for our sins. It is His shed blood that cleanses us from our sins through faith in Him. This is more than just knowing a set of facts in your head. It involves repentance and a real change of heart. It means wanting to live for Jesus, making Him Lord of your life. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:99That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. (John 1:9)).
Eventually, Kurniawan’s deception and forgeries caught up with him. When the FBI raided his home, they found a full-scale counterfeiting operation going on in his basement. The evidence was undeniable: dozens of old wine bottles in various stages of forgery, fake labels, rubber stamps and detailed recipes on how to make expensive wines using much cheaper ones.
When his case came to trial in 2013, the prosecution made the charge that Kurniawan was the “biggest and most successful wine counterfeiter in the world.” How was this even possible? Apparently, he had used his exceptional pallet for taste and a very good memory for wine components to imitate rare wines. Bottles were easy to come by — remember his habit of asking for the empty bottles at wine-tasting parties? His lawyer attempted to say that the wines discovered in his home were merely for show, intended to be used for home décor! The jury found him guilty and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.
The instant we die, we will know with absolute certainty if what we believed as to the hereafter was false. There is one and only one God. There is a heaven and a hell. We will spend all eternity in one place or the other. There is no escaping hell after 10 years or 1,000 years. The Bible tells us that those who do not receive God’s offer of forgiveness for sin will “be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). Those who have their sins forgiven and are trusting in the blood shed on Calvary’s cross through the grace of God alone will have eternal life. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:3636He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36)). Today, you have a chance to choose eternal life.
Rudy Kurniawan may have pulled off the biggest wine fraud in history, but there was another, even more famous wine scam that happened even before Rudy came into the picture. Read about it in The Jefferson Bottles.