Rudy Kurniawan

Rudy Kurniawan (born 1976, in Jakarta, Indonesia) is a prominent wine collector (called in 2007 the posessor of "arguably the greatest cellar on Earth" ) and alleged perpetrator of wine fraud. He was arrested on March 8, 2012 and indicted for allegedly selling fraudulent wine at auction. Allegedly, Kurniwan was buying large stocks of negociant Burgundy and re-labeling them as more expensive wines, such as Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. He famously consigned several lots of Clos St. Denis from Domaine Ponsot from vintages long prior to any recorded production of Ponsot wines from that vineyard; the auction lots were withdrawn prior to bidding.

Background
Kurniawan began buying and selling large amounts of rare wines in the early part of the 2000's, spending as much as $1 million a month buying auction lots by 2006. At the same time, he began hosting tastings of rare wines with other collectors; he showed so much affinity for the expensive Burgundy producer, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, at these events that he became known as "Dr. Conti." Eventually, he wound up consigning lots to 2 major auctions at Acker, Merral & Condit in 2006, netting $10.6 million ($}} in 2024 dollars) in the first and $24.7 million ($ in 2024 dollars) in the second. The second auction was the record for a single sale of wine at auction,, beating the previous record by more than $10 million. During the two auctions, Kurniawan offered for sale 8 magnums of 1947 Château Lafleur.

In April 2007, Kurniawan consigned several magnums of 1982 Château Le Pin at Christie's in Los Angeles; the bottles were featured on the auction catalog's cover. Representatives from Le Pin contacted the auction house and indicated that the bottles were fake; Christie's withdrew the lot from auction after further review of the bottles. At the 2007 TASTE3 food and wine conference held in Napa, California, David Molyneux-Berry, the former head of the wine department at Sotheby's, noted that only five magnums of the 1947 Lafleur were produced, indicating that Kurniawan's wines sold in 2006 were assuredly fakes.

In 2008, Kurniawan consigned several bottles allegedly made by Domaine Ponsot from the Clos St. Denis Grand Cru appelation, with vintages ranging from 1945 through 1971. According to Laurent Ponsot, head of Domaine Ponsot, the domaine had never made a Clos St. Denis prior to 1982. Ponsot contacted the auction house, and the alleged fake lots were removed. Ponsot later met with Kurniawan and was left wondering if Rudy was a counterfeiter, or simply the last person to handle unknowingly counterfeited wine. Kurniawan, when asked after the auction lots were withdrawn where the wine came from, said "we try our best to get it right, but it's Burgundy, and sometimes shit happens." He also arranged for a $3 million loan for himself from Emigrant Savings Bank in January of 2008, secured with art and wine that had been previously promised to Acker, Merrall & Condit. After the Ponsot sale was called off, Kurniawan's luck had almost entirely run out. Bill Koch filed a lawsuit against him in 2009, alleging Kurniawan knowingly sold fake bottles to him and other collectors, both at auction and privately. He also defaulted on a $10 million loan from the auction house Acker, Merrall & Condit, where he sold much of his wine, including the withdrawn Ponsot sale. In February of 2012, Spectrum Wine Auctions had to withdraw several lots of wine, worth an estimated $785,000, from an auction in London when allegations emerged that they were consigned by Kurniawan through a second party.

Eventually, in March of 2012, Kurniawan was arrested and charged with fraud.

Arrest
On the morning of March 8, the FBI arrested Kurniawan at his home in Arcadia, California. When agents searched his house, they found inexpensive Napa wines with notes indicating they would be passed off as older vintages of Bordeaux, corks, stamps, labels, and other tools involved in counterfeiting wine. He was indicted on several counts of mail fraud and wire fraud in New York on March 9. Later investigations indicated that Kurniawan was purchasing inexpensive, though old, Burgundy wines and re-labeling them with prestegious producer names and vintages.

Victims
Alleged victims of Kurniawan's fraud include Bill Koch, who sued Kurniawan in 2009 alleging he sold fake bottles at auction and in private sales -- specifically, a 1947 Château Pétrus, a 1945 Comte Georges de Vogüé Musigny Cuvée Vielles Vignes and two bottles of 1934 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti that were sold at the first of Kurniawan's two auctions in 2006. Edward Milstein of Level 1 Entertainment, who purchased Kurniawan-consigned lots at auction, alleges he purchased fakes as well. Emigrant Bank, which Milstein's family owns, had Kurniawan default on $2.3 million in loans. Acker, Merrall, & Condit was still owed, as of February 2012, almost $3.5 million from their loans to Kurniawan.