Two suspects conned their way into a wine cellar tour beneath a French restaurant in Virginia and made off with expensive bottles of pinot noir Photo / 123rf
He flew off to Austria. She is stuck in a Virginia jail. And police in other states are checking if the two are connected to unsolved high-end wine heists like the one the duo is accused of committing 96km west of Washington DC.
Virginia authorities say Nikola Krndija, 57, and Natali Ray, 56, conned their way into a wine cellar tour beneath a French restaurant.
Krndija, they add, managed to slip six bottles of pinot noir, one alone valued at US$24,000 ($41,432), into his long overcoat. Both suspects are charged with fraud and grand larceny.
“This was not their first rodeo,” said Clarke County Commonwealth’s Attorney Matthew Bass, whose office is prosecuting the case.
He said there are “multiple, active investigations of high-end wine thefts around the country in which Ray and Krndija are possible suspects.”
Wine industry experts say the Virginia heist bore the hallmarks of a trend across the United States and Europe.
“We’re going to see more of this, not less,” said Maureen Downey, a wine fraud specialist who manages high-end collections for businesses and individuals.
She cited several reasons: a thriving black market for expensive wine; restaurants and shops that tout their wine lists online even as they’ve been slow to properly secure their facilities; and bottles that can easily be transported.
“The value of wine from the top vineyards has got so high that it is driving up these thefts,” added Michael Egan, who lives in the Bordeaux area of France and for two decades has authenticated commercial and private wine collections around the world.
Late on the afternoon of November 19, authorities say the two Virginia suspects - Krndija, a Serbian national, and Ray, from Kent, England, - approached an employee at the L’Auberge Provençale Inn and Restaurant in the Shenandoah Valley wine country. The establishment’s overhead surveillance videos recorded the encounter.
“Hi. I’m Stephanie Jacobs,” the woman said. “And I’m looking at booking an event for about 20 to 25 people.”
She said she served as the personal assistant to the chief executive of a Canadian finance firm who wanted to hold a dinner in the area,
“I’ve heard your reputation,” she said. “I’ve been tasked to scout ahead.”
Her quiet companion, slender with a shock of grey hair, kept his head down. He wore casual clothes under the long overcoat and, on his hand used to touch door handles, a glove. The woman did all the talking.
“Is it possible to show me around the wine cellar,” she asked. “Is the sommelier in?”
That was how Christian Borel found himself guiding the pair through the cellar as the man drifted off down the aisle with the most prized bottles.
Borel grew suspicious but didn’t act on his worries until after they’d walked back upstairs - touching off a rapid sequence of events that led to Borel yelling out: “Stop them! They’re stealing the Romanée-Contis!”
Outside, and now running and clinking his way down US 340, the man made it to his rented SUV, according to authorities and Borel. He sped off.
The woman, not as fast as her companion, was detained by a waiter until sheriff’s deputies arrived. She was charged with three offences: conspiracy to commit grand larceny, grand larceny, and defrauding an innkeeper. Ray is due in court again on February 11.
Court records list Ray as being represented by the Virginia Public Defender Office. Peter McDermott, the head public defender for the region, declined to comment earlier about the Clarke County charges. He could not be reached recently about other police agencies possibly looking into Ray.
It took investigators some time to identify Ray’s alleged partner.
Clarke County Sheriff Travis Sumption said Krndija made his way north after the theft and on the next day boarded a flight out of New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Vienna, Austria. “Authorities continue efforts to determine his current whereabouts,” Sumption said in a statement.
The sheriff also released a photograph of Krndija, confirming to the restaurant staff he’d hit their place in disguise.
“Just put a small beard and toupee on him, and that’s him,” Borel said.
His thrill over detectives finding an identity, though, gave way to deeper doubt about ever seeing his wine again, given Krndija’s flight destination. Such an international hub, Borel thought, such quick travel elsewhere.
Clarke County officials said that Interpol has been notified.
Police in Delray Beach, Florida, said Ray has become a “person of interest” in their nearly two-year-old probe of a US$30,000 theft from a high-end wine shop in their downtown area.
In early 2024, according to Major Luis Skeberis, investigators had sent surveillance images from their case to police agencies around the US, seeking help in identifying the suspects. Last month, after Virginia authorities locked up Ray, they contacted Delray Beach about her, according to Skeberis.
Delray Beach detectives have spoken recently with their counterparts from Miami Beach and a cruise line who are investigating wine thefts and are looking into any similarities to the Delray Beach and Virginia cases.
“I would say that it is prudent for any agency with a similar crime to look into Virginia’s suspects if their case is still open,” Skeberis said.
Borel said investigators showed him a surveillance image from the Florida case. “That’s the girl,” he remembers telling them.
Downey, who owns and operates WineFraud.com, said the thieves or someone with whom they work probably spotted the 2020 Romanée-Conti on the Virginia restaurant’s wine list. “There’s no question those two went in there to get that bottle,” she said.
As to where the wine went, that seems to be anyone’s guess.
The duo could have had a buyer already lined up - either in the US or abroad. Nor is flying a big concern for wine thieves. “The only time they’re stressed out is at baggage claim - hoping for no leaks,” Downey said.
That said, just because the suspects came from Europe, the wine still could have been unloaded in the US, given how a network of murky middlemen and resellers constantly communicate across both regions.
“A bottle can change hands four times, down the line, with no one asking any questions and everyone getting their cut,” Downey said.
And of course, stealing high-end wine affords a delicious if costly emergency option. “You can always drink the evidence,” Egan said.
Ray appears to have a social media presence. A LinkedIn page for a “Natali Ray,” of Kent, England, and an X account for a “Natalie Ray,” of South East, England, appear to be the same person as the Virginia suspect, said Sumption.
The LinkedIn page describes its subject as a published writer and poet engaged in literary translation from Serbian to English.
“Strong education professional with a master’s degree focused in creative writing,” the page states. “Skilled in management and leadership.”
The X profile describes Natali Ray as a writer, poet and traveller with an interest in medical humanities.
But for now she sits in the Northwestern Regional Adult Detention Centre after four restaurant staffers and a patron chased her down.
“One of the many great things about Clarke County is that when someone yells, ‘Stop, thief!’ everyone in earshot jumps into action,” said Bass. “These two suspects messed with the wrong county.”
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