NEW YORK (AP) A prosecutor opened the fraud trial of a California wine dealer on Monday by saying greed motivated him to cheat wine collectors out of millions of dollars, but a defense lawyer said his client was the victim of widespread corruption in the resale market for vintage wines.
The differing views were offered to jurors in U.S. District Court in Manhattan during opening statements at the trial of Rudy Kurniawan, an Indonesian-born immigrant of Chinese descent who was arrested last year and accused of trying to sell more than $1.3 million worth of counterfeit bottles to other wealthy collectors.
"This is a case about greed," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Hernandez said.
He said Kurniawan, 37, performed a classic bait-and-switch by letting his victims taste wines valued at tens of thousands of dollars at dinners he staged, only to later convince them to buy bottles of poor-quality French wine that he had poured into vintage-looking bottles in his Arcadia, California, kitchen.
Hernandez said Kurniawan, who's charged with mail fraud and wire fraud, was driven by an "unquenchable thirst for luxury cars, designer clothing and the finest food and drinks in the world." He said Kurniawan "loved living the high life and loved the attention."
