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The last 10 years have been nightmarish for fine wine collectors in the world with greedy fraudsters making illegitimate profits by selling fake wines disguised as the original ones, making buying rare vintage wines a risky business. No one perhaps felt the sting as much as the billionaire collector William Koch who has been systematically chasing the fraudsters and the wine merchants and auctioneers who sold him fake wines, knowingly or unknowingly.
One such merchant has been the New York retailer and well-known auction house in the US, UK and Hong Kong- Acker, Merrall & Condit (AMC) whom delWine dubbed King of Wine Auctions in Hong Kong in 2010, and reported on many an occasion, especially during the years he epitomized the hunger for collectors in China and Hong Kong that took the prices of the fine wines to unprecedented heights with record sales, making Hong Kong the hub of auctions in the world.
Koch had filed a suit against AMC in 2008 in the NY Supreme Court, accusing the company of allegedly selling 216 bottles of counterfeit wine at auction in 2005 and 2006. The suit said Koch paid a total of $2.1m and asked for twice the amount- $4.2 million, plus punitive damages, for deceptive business practices and false advertising. The settlement amount has not been disclosed but the figure quoted has been substantial and satisfactory enough for Koch to withdraw the case against the company.
As a part of the agreement, Acker, Merrall & Condit must now allow the return of suspect or counterfeit wines, according to the statement and will also authenticate all wine with vintages of 1969-70 or earlier, reports Reuter.
'This is a big victory for consumers,' said Koch, who has spent more than $25m chasing alleged counterfeiters. 'I am pleased that the auction industry is changing the way business is conducted. Acker, Merrall & Condit was by its own account the largest reseller of vintage wines. Consumers will now have more protection from unscrupulous collectors as a result of this settlement. We have cast a bright light on a dark industry,' he reportedly said.
This is not the first time Koch has sought legal recourse to bring the merchants to book whether they sold him wines knowingly or unknowingly. He has won several legal victories. Last year he won a case against a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Eric Greenberg, for selling him fake Bordeaux wines for which he was awarded over $700,000 in punitive damages.
In the then first case of its kind in 2005, he had sued another wine dealer, Hardy Rodenstock, who had allegedly sold him the counterfeit Jefferson bottles, according to the statement. Koch also sued and testified against Rudy Kurniawan, an Indonesian fraudster who was found guilty of fraud by a federal jury last December for selling counterfeit wines to unsuspecting customers including Koch. Kurniawan will be sentenced next week. delWine has been reporting on that case to keep investors, especially in India, on their toes against possible frauds.
Tags: William Koch, Acker, Merrall & Condit, AMC, Eric Greenberg, Hardy Rodenstock, Rudy Kurniawan |