And the counterfeiters were just getting started, apparently: Italian police seized labels for 40,000 more bottles—a potential $1.9 million worth—as well as a professional labeling machine, according to Wine Spectator magazine.
Eight people were arrested in the operation after lab tests confirmed the bottles’ contents was not real Champagne, Wine Spectator said.
The issue of counterfeit wine has accelerated as prices for rare and coveted vintages have skyrocketed.
Just seven weeks ago, about 500 bottles of counterfeit wine were destroyed in Texas in a case linked to a California dealer who mixed cheap vintages and sold them for millions of dollars. That dealer, Rudy Kurniawan, was convicted of mail and wire fraud in federal court in New York in 2013, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, ordered to forfeit $20 million and must make nearly $25 million in restitution, according to the Associated Press.
Investigators say Kurniawan mixed wines in his kitchen, poured the concoctions into old bottles with fake vintage labels and sold the items to collectors.
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