SMART SHORTS - Série d'été du lundi 3 juillet 2023
SMART SHORTS du 3 juillet 2023
Transcript
00:00 Do you know Dr. Conti?
00:02 From his real name, Rudy Kurniawan, he is the architect of one of the biggest
00:06 big-time wine-growing frauds in the world.
00:08 In the early 2000s, this Indonesian, barely 20 years old,
00:13 made a splash in the world of American wine collectors.
00:18 He presents himself as a rich Indonesian heir.
00:21 He travels the sales halls and buys many big-time wines at exorbitant prices.
00:26 In particular, bottles of Romane Conti, his favorite.
00:30 In a few years, he managed to build an exceptional cellar.
00:34 Thanks to his very good memory, he remembers the opinions of other experts in oenology,
00:39 which he uses to build his credibility.
00:42 In 2004, he partnered with businessman John Capone
00:45 to orchestrate the most exceptional wine auction sales in the world.
00:49 In January 2006, one of his sales broke the world record for wine sales,
00:54 with more than 35 million dollars in revenues.
00:57 However, over the years, some details attract the attention of some winegrowers.
01:02 In 2008, Rudy Kurniawan registered in the catalog of one of his sales
01:07 84 bottles of wine from the Ponceau domain in Burgundy, dated from 1945 to 1972.
01:14 However, the producer of this wine, Laurent Ponceau,
01:17 only started production in 1982.
01:20 At the same time, the collector Douglas Barzelay gathers a panel of experts
01:26 sorted on the fly to taste a dozen of millesimes,
01:30 bought during one of the sales at the auction organized by Rudy Kurniawan.
01:34 No of the bottles is authentic.
01:37 A complaint is filed and the FBI files a case.
01:41 In March 2012, the agents arrest Dr. Conti and search his home.
01:46 They discover many false labels, caps, wax, capsules,
01:51 as well as a real laboratory that would have been used to bottle unprestigious wines under false names.
01:58 Worse, they get hands on compromising correspondence that attest to the fraud.
02:03 The Rudy Kurniawan trial opens in December 2013 in New York
02:08 and many domain owners come to testify.
02:11 The sentence is pronounced in August 2014. Rudy Kurniawan is sentenced to 10 years in prison
02:17 and must pay 28 million dollars to some of his clients.
02:21 He is finally released on April 8, 2021 and expelled to Malaysia.
02:26 At present, he still has not paid a cent to his victims.