The leader of the group, which has earned up to 2 million euros so far, is a Russian
French and Italian police say they have busted an international ring for cheats, which sold poor quality bottles such as old vintages for up to €15,000 each.
Six people – including a Russian national who is the suspected ringleader – were arrested in Paris, Turin and Milan.
They allegedly fabricated fake labels impersonating celebrities french cellars, which were then sold at full market value through wine merchants around the world.
The group made 2 million euros from the scam, French prosecutors said.
A French national has been charged with organized fraud and money laundering.
The suspected driver, a 40-year-old Russian man, will also be charged, prosecutors said.
In a press release, Europol said the items found during the seizures included “a large quantity of wine bottles from various counterfeit Grand Cru domains, wine stickers and wax products, wine refilling ingredients, technical bottling machines, luxury goods’, as well as electronic equipment worth €1.4 million and over €100,000 in cash.
Wine scams have been around since wine was invented.
Until a few years ago in France, this was at a fairly manageable level – a few specialist experts falsified labels and wax seals to present the basic wine as something more luxurious.
But in the last decade things have changed.
The prices fetched by the best Grand Crus on the world market are now so high – thousands of pounds a bottle – that it has become profitable for fraud to be carried out in a much more organized manner.
Italy is said to be the center of this type of fraud. This is because they have the winemaking know-how there: artisans who understand labeling and old bottles and corks; and also a criminal underworld that is willing to invest.
A wine auctioneer told me today that the forgery of old bottles and labels is so skillful that even the vintners themselves often cannot recognize a forgery.
And because some buyers then store the wine for years, they may never know it’s fake.
With international buyers, particularly in China, willing to spend £20,000 or more on a top-quality bottle, the criminal temptation to create the perfect bottle – then fill it with junk – is for some too big for to resist.
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