Rudy Kurniawan Sold One of the Koch Brothers Fake Wine, and Now He’s Going to Prison

William Koch, the quieter and less politically active of the Koch brothers, is a wine collector. He’s also the victim of a huge wine swindle. Koch, as well as several other prominent collectors, bought counterfeit French vintages created by connoisseur Rudy Kurniawan in his home kitchen in the Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia. On Thursday, Kurniawan was sentenced to 10 years in prison on mail- and wire-fraud charges; he was ordered to forfeit $20 million in real estate, art, jewelry, and wine, and pay $28.4 million to those he deceived.

Kurniawan’s scheme was “a bold, grandiose, unscrupulous but destined-to-fail con,” U.S. District Judge Richard Berman said. Kurniawan, also known as Dr. Conti, had cheated collectors, auction houses, and others from 2004 to 2012; some of the bogus wine hasn’t been recovered. Kurniawan is the first person in the U.S. to be prosecuted for selling fake wine.