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In a Decade-long Caper, Criminals Cashed In on Fake Wine, Police Say
A criminal network was accused of selling bottles of fake French wine for as much as 15,000 euros. It’s the latest in a growing criminal trend: wine fraud.
The red French wines were some of the most high-end bottles you could find, stacked neatly among other luxury labels. They appeared in 2019 on the top shelves of wine merchants in Italy and Switzerland, catering to wealthy customers and their finer palates.
The price tag? 15,000 euros.
The bottles weren’t worth a fraction of that. In fact, the wine wasn’t even French.
So goes the latest caper in the increasingly robust wine fraud market, where both small-time hustlers and organized crime members try to dupe the finer tastes — and fatter wallets — of wine aficionados around the world.
Europol, the inter-European police force, announced on Wednesday that it had dismantled a wide-ranging scheme that manufactured wine in Italy, mislabeled the wine as French, then clandestinely shipped the supposed Grand Cru vintages to unsuspecting wine merchants around the world. Six people, who were not identified by Europol, were arrested.
While the Everyman may be more concerned about identity fraud or personal finance scams, wine fraud targets a more select demographic, whose victims are far more likely to find hubris at the standard dining table than sympathy. Still, such heists have gained traction over the last two decades, as rare wine prices have exploded.
