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Wine collector sues sellers of phoney bottles
Wine collector William Koch is on a mission to sue sellers of counterfeit fine wine in an attempt to rid the industry of phoney bottles.
The Palm Beach-based billionaire has built up an extensive wine collection, including an allegedly fake bottle of Lafite 1787 with Thomas Jefferson’s initials etched into it.
He has already sued the seller of the Jefferson wine, Hardy Rodenstock, who lives in Germany.
Although Rodenstock maintains that the wine is genuine, according to the federal lawsuit Koch filed in New York, Thomas Jefferson’s “initials” were in fact etched into the bottle with modern-day power tools.
Since this initial lawsuit, Koch has filed four more and is working on another.
He estimates he has spent as much as US$4 million on fine wine that turned out to be fake and a further $7m in legal expenses against the sellers.
He is reported to have said: “I’m going after this like a junkyard dog… I’m not giving up.”
Apparently he has already been banned from some auction houses in the US.
Patrick Schmitt, 07.01.10