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He amassed tens of millions of dollars by ripping off wealthy collectors... This is the story of Rudy Kurniawan, the wine expert who sold fake bottles.
Transcript
00:00Can you please state your name for the record? Rudy Kurniawan.
00:02He amassed tens of millions of dollars by scamming wealthy collectors.
00:06Here's the story of Rudy Kurniawan, the wine expert who sold fake bottles.
00:30Hello, everyone. This week on Big Story, I wanted to talk to you about a scammer,
00:38perhaps one of the greatest forgers we've ever known. His name, Rudy Kurniawan. It may not ring
00:43a bell, but for nearly a decade, he sold fake bottles of wine to wealthy collectors with almost
00:48complete impunity until the day he was unmasked by a French winemaker. It's April 25th, 2008,
00:55in New York. The auction house Akron Merrill & Conde, a century-old and respected institution,
01:00organizes a sale of prestigious wines in a Manhattan restaurant.
01:07Bottles worth tens of thousands of dollars are put up for sale. Among them, great burgundy wines
01:12like the Romanée Conti and Clos Sans Ni from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s by the Ponceau estate.
01:25Informed a few days before the sale, Laurent Ponceau contacts the auctioneer to have his
01:31bottles removed from the auction. Unconvinced by his interlocutor, he flies to New York.
01:55Rudy Kurniawan is a notable figure in the discreet world of wine enthusiasts,
02:04a circle of extremely wealthy collectors who do not hesitate to spend astronomical sums to acquire
02:09the rarest and most prestigious vintages. In the early 2000s, the rare wine market is booming
02:24in the United States. Auctions are piling up, and Grand Cru bottles are selling for a fortune.
02:46Between 2002 and 2007, this market grows from $90 million to $300 million,
02:52a very lucrative field especially for speculators. And that's where Rudy Kurniawan makes his entrance.
03:02Of Chinese origin, Rudy Kurniawan's real name is Zhen Wang Huang. Born in Indonesia in 1976,
03:08he immigrated to the United States with a student visa in the late 1990s,
03:12and settled in the suburbs of Los Angeles.
03:21In the early 2000s, Kurniawan studies oenology as an autodidact. He specializes in French wine,
03:31particularly the great burgundy wines, which were, at the time,
03:35less valued than Bordeaux in the American market. Notice for his exceptional tasting skills,
03:40the young student then rapidly rises in the world of wine enthusiasts.
03:44Some even believe him to possess the gift of a supertaster, a rare talent that would allow him
03:49to experience flavors much more intensely.
03:57Under the false identity of Rudy Kurniawan, he claims to be the heir of a wealthy Indonesian
04:02family. The young student manages to infiltrate a club of wealthy Californian collectors called
04:07the Burgundy Sluts, a club through which he can expand his network and sell vintage wines.
04:13For Kurniawan claims to own a cellar of over 50,000 bottles he himself
04:17calls the magic cellar.
04:31Kurniawan leads a millionaire's life in an upscale neighborhood of Los Angeles.
04:35He wears luxury suits, drives sports cars, and acquires artwork by Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst.
04:42In auctions, he stands out by keeping his hand raised to outbid and win almost every lot.
04:48I had heard of a young Asian man who bought wine for $500,000 to $1,000,000 a month,
04:57who held parties, who brought extraordinary wines. I had heard of him.
05:01In 2004, he meets John Capone,
05:04the auctioneer at the prestigious New York auction house at Carmarilyn Condon.
05:091990, Roman and Conaty. Last morning, 1.56 million.
05:15Thanks to Capone, Kurniawan enters a new circle of collectors, the 12 Angry Men.
05:20Among the 12 Angry Men, it is customary for each member to find a nickname.
05:39Rudy Kurniawan has two, Dr. Conti and Mr. 47.
05:51With Capone, they organize an auction in 2006 that brings in $10 million. A few months later,
05:59they hold a second auction, which this time fetches $24 million,
06:03a historic record for a single seller.
06:07Rudy Kurniawan is then at the peak of his glory. But let's go back to the beginning of the story,
06:11in 2008, when Laurent Ponceau interrupts the auction in New York. The next day,
06:15he's invited to dinner by Kurniawan and Capone in a grand restaurant.
06:21Laurent Ponceau decides to investigate Kurniawan. He follows his trail to Los Angeles,
06:43and then to Southeast Asia, specifically Indonesia, his country of origin.
06:50Meanwhile, American billionaire Bill Koch discovers that his bottles,
07:04supposedly having belonged to Thomas Jefferson, one of the early presidents of the United States,
07:09are, in fact, fakes. He then decides to have his 43,000-bottle seller appraised.
07:17In 2009, he sues Kurniawan and the Acker Auction House, accusing them of selling him 200 fake
07:22bottles for over $2 million. As suspicions thicken over the origin of Rudy Kurniawan's wine,
07:29he struggles to repay his numerous debts, particularly to the Acker Auction House,
07:34from which he borrowed $10 million. He wanted to sell me all these wines that were
07:391940s and 1950s. Pomerol, Le Fleur, and Petrus. And I thought that was crazy,
07:47and the labels seemed photocopied to me. So I asked him for receipts, and he couldn't give me
07:52any. On March 8, 2012, Rudy Kurniawan is finally arrested by the FBI. During the search of his
07:58home, agents discover a real laboratory. Fake labels, fake wax seals, fake stamps,
08:04and recipes to mimic Grand Cru French wines. Everything is there to craft fake bottles of
08:10rare wines from ordinary wines. At his trial, Rudy Kurniawan pleads not guilty.
08:34He faces 100 years in prison. The suspect remains silent about his production secrets
08:39and potential accomplices. Do you speak French? No. And do you write French? No. Just merci.
08:56The people who were funding him and the auction house that was making all the money by selling
09:00his wine were making sure that he was protected. Rudy Kurniawan is eventually sentenced to 10
09:07years in prison and ordered to repay $28 million. Very surprised. Stunned, I think. We did not
09:13expect the judge to impose a sentence of that length. Since the Kurniawan affair, the traceability
09:19of prestigious wine bottles has been strengthened. But the bottles sold by the Indonesian forger
09:23continue to fill the cellars of collectors.
09:30As for John Kapan, he was not troubled by the American justice system. He continues to thrive
09:56in the sale of prestigious wines. Rudy Kurniawan was released from prison in 2002 before being
10:02deported to Indonesia. Since then, he has reportedly resumed his activities in the wine business.
10:14Thank you for watching this video. I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to share your thoughts
10:18in the comments and subscribe to the Brut channel. And if you want to watch more videos like this,
10:22the playlist link is in the description. See you soon.