Maybe they should just drink Yellow Tail.
A once-prominent wine expert was sentenced Thursday to 10 years behind bars for selling tens of millions of dollars in counterfeit vintage wine over nearly a decade — but not before his lawyer made a bizarre bid for leniency by arguing that Rudy Kurniawan only targeted rich “one percenters” who could afford to be ripped off.
“There shouldn’t be a bottle of wine that cost three times what people make in a year,” defense lawyer Jerome Mooney told Manhattan federal Judge Richard Berman. “It completely misrepresents the actual value and actual harm of what was done. Nobody died, nobody lost their savings, nobody lost their job.”
Mooney tried to make his case by saying an average bottle of wine cost $7 and that one of Kurniawan’s victims, Quest Software co-founder David Doyle, had the gall to pay $231,748 for a rare bottle of 1947 Chateau Cheval Blanc.
“I don’t want to think what that translates to per sip,” Mooney quipped.
Berman wasn’t impressed with the remarks by Mooney, who not only pointed blame at other rich victims, like billionaire industrialist William Koch, for spending “incomprehensible” amounts of money on wine but also said the 37-year-old Kurniawan should receive less prison time for producing quality fakes that at least tasted authentic.
“So [your] principal is if you’re rich and get defrauded, the person who commits the fraud should get a lesser penalty?” Berman asked.
“The public-at-large needs to know that their food and drink are safe and can trust what is on a label … and not some homemade, potentially unsafe witches’ brew,” the judge added.
Assistant US Attorney Stanley Okula called Mooney’s comments, “quite shocking,” adding “fraud is fraud” whether the victims are rich or poor.
The judge also ordered Kurniawan to pay $28.4 million in restitution to seven victims, including $15.1 million to Doyle. Kurniawan, who faces deportation to his native Indonesia when he completes his sentence, must also forfeit $20 million in assets to the government.
He was the first person the feds have ever pursued criminal charges against for wine counterfeiting.
Kurniawan sat silently with his head down throughout a three-hour sentencing hearing that exceeded the mere, less than two hours that jurors needed deliberating in December before convicting him on mail and wire fraud charges.
“Your honor, I am really sorry. I meant everything I said in the letter … I just want to take care of my mother,” said Kurniawan. He was referring to a recent letter he sent Berman in which he said he’s “not evil or violent” and “truly sorry for the shame I have brought on my family.”
Berman, however, was neither moved by Kurniawan’s remarks or the letter, saying he was troubled that the defendant failed to admit to the crimes he was convicted of.
Prosecutors during the trial told jurors that Kurniawan tricked his buyers into thinking he had uncovered a “magic wine cellar” in Europe — but in reality mixed a “witches’ brew” of cheap French wines and California blends at his Acadia, Calif. home and then sold them as rare reds and whites, routinely for tens of thousands of dollars a pop. The feds also say he used his home computer and printer to cunningly create the fake labels .
Koch and French wine titan Laurent Ponsot were among the top wine aficionados the government rolled out during the December trial while also dazzling jurors with dozens of bottles of fake wine and hundreds of wine labels, corks and other items associated with the alleged fraud.
Koch testified he spent $2.1 million buying 219 fake bottles of wine from Kurniawan and has since spent $25 million on his own “personal crusade” to rid the world of vino counterfeiters. He will not be receiving any of the court-ordered restitution because he and Kurniawan previously agreed to a $3 million settlement in a separate California civil case.
Mooney afterwards said he thought the judge’s sentencing was too strong and still plans to appeal the conviction. Mooney claims the feds conducted an improper search of Kurniawan’s home before arresting him in March 2012 and seizing millions of dollars in properties, fancy cars and other assets.
Mooney had sought 29 months time served for Kurniawan with no additional prison time, while the government sought up to 14 years in prison for the defendant.
The judge ultimately determined Kurniawan’s sentencing range should run from nine years to 11 years and three months. Mooney argued that nine years is “too high” but then asked Berman to reconsider nine years as a sentence after Berman handed Kurniawan the 10-year prison sentence.
The lawyer had claimed at trial that his client never made counterfeit wine. He told jurors Kurniawan was duped into buying the fake vino and then unknowingly sold it.
Kurniawan — who spent about a decade as one of the country’s leading wine connoisseurs — was famed for hosting lavish late-night tasting parties at restaurants, including the since-closed Cru in Greenwich Village.