DRC Faker Offers to Name Names

The ugly truth about fake fine wine hitting the international market is out there – and it's available for a price.

A man convicted for being the ringleader of a group of counterfeiters operating out of Europe has apparently contacted Wine-Searcher and offered to name names in exchange for $100,000.

Alexsandr Iugov – also known as Alexander Amikin – was convicted of counterfeiting and was sentenced on Monday to four years' prison, with a minimum term of two years. Yesterday, Wine-Searcher received an email purporting to be from Iugov, saying he had been falsely convicted.

He said his lawyer had documentary evidence that would "explode the international fine and rare wine market", including invoices from US and European wine merchants who sold him the wines, knowing them to be fake. He offered exclusive access via a series of interviews for a sum of money.

Fraud expert Don Cornwell, who was involved in the investigation into the counterfeiting ring, said Iugov had been involved with two different sets of counterfeits. The first set originated in Italy; father and son, Enzio and Nicola Lucca, were later arrested and charged in Switzerland for their part in the con, which involved faking older vintages of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti wines.

"While better than most Rudy counterfeits, [they] were not great counterfeits, because they had some obvious tells once you knew what to look for," Cornwell said. DRC was alerted and then a second group of forgeries emerged, this time from Switzerland, and they were fakes of more recent vintages.

There have been complaints from various quarters down the years about a certain level of complicity at the top end of the fine wine trade when it comes to counterfeits. WineFraud.com founder Maureen Downey believes that as much as one bottle in five on the market could be fake, from deliberately mislabeled varietal wine in discount stores to the highest quality Bordeaux.

There have also been frequent grumblings on wine blogs and communities such as Wine Berserkers about the level of collusion between counterfeiters and legitimate members of the trade when it comes to expensive auction lots. Several auctions have seen lots withdrawn as doubts arose about provenance, and threats of legal action against fraud campaigners haven't eventuated.

However, Downey says people need to realize fakery isn't the preserve of auctions. "It is an industry-wide problem, it's high time the myth that it is an auction issue be shattered," she told Wine-Searcher.

"Europe is the current hotbed, with production happening at breakneck speed. It's astounding what they are turning out. The thing that scares me, is that Asia is the most keen to have wines authenticated, and to get people trained, far more than European retailers, brokers and auction houses – and the US is in the dust. I have more interest in authentication services and information from Taipei than I do from the entire US. Only Zachys seems to actually be doing something proactive about the issue as a company."

She added that assurances of authenticity from many wine professionals should be taken with a grain of salt.

"Sommeliers do not know anything about authentication, nor do Masters of Wine. Wine knowledge does not equal knowledge about authentication. It makes me ill that people think authentication skills can be osmosed. Because one studies and learns soils and regional classifications does not mean one automatically knows about the history and chemistry of glue production and ink characteristics of particular producers through the '30s, '40s and '50s. Just like being a second- or third-generation retailer does not mean you have osmosed authentication ability."

For now, Wine-Searcher is keeping an open mind about Iugov's allegations and offer. If the email and the offer are genuine, then we'll take it from there, and keep our readers informed. And maybe give some people in the fine wine trade a few sleepless nights, too. Watch this space.