Kurniawan loses appeal against wine fraud conviction

A US court has rejected an appeal from Indonesian-born wine fraudster Rudy Kurniawan, who had argued his 10 year prison sentence for conning victims out of $30 million by selling fake wines was too harsh.

Rudy Kurniawan was found guilty of selling millions of dollars of rare and expensive counterfeit wine in 2013, conning his victims out of $30 million.

A US attorney lodged an appeal against the 10-year prison sentence handed down to Kurniawan in 2014, filing papers in April 2015 arguing that his sentence had been overly harsh and calling for a dismissal of the conviction.

They argued that the search of his home following his arrest was unlawful, so the evidence discovered there – the “wine factory” – should have been suppressed, and that as the victims of his fraud were wealthy the financial impact was lower and this should have been taken into account during sentencing.

This week a US court rejected the appeal, upholding the 2013 conviction and subsequent sentence, with a three-judge panel calling Kurniawan’s arguments “meritless.”

Kurniawan produced hundreds of counterfeit bottles out of his home in California, using empty rare bottles and printing fake labels.

He was found guilty of one count of mail fraud related to counterfeiting wine and one count of wine fraud for defrauding a loan company on a $3 million loan. Kurniawan’s victims lost close to $30 million between them, which included billionaire Bill Koch who testified at the trial.

Earlier this month a sale of fine wines belonging to Kurniawan realised US$1.5 million – while hundreds more deemed fake have been destroyed.