Billionaire William Koch Wins Trial Over Fake French Wine

Billionaire William Koch won a fraud lawsuit in which he claimed a consigner sold him 24 counterfeit bottles of wine from France’s Bordeaux region and may get punitive damages as the jury resumes deliberations.

The federal jury in Manhattan yesterday found against the consigner, Eric Greenberg, concluding he made fraudulent representations about the authenticity and provenance of the wine, including many purported grand crus that cost Koch tens of thousands of dollars. The jury awarded Koch $379,000 in damages, comprising the amount he paid for the wine at a 2005 auction and $1,000 in compensatory damages for each bottle.