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In the trial of five wine merchants and négociants from Bordeaux who had bought hundreds of thousands of bottles of wine in Spain and labelled them as high-quality Bordeaux wines, the verdicts have now been announced. The court in Bordeaux, presided by president Marie-Elisabeth Boulnois, found all five defendants guilty and imposed particularly severe sentences for consumer fraud for two of them. They are now under house arrest for two years and 20 months respectively. In addition, assets worth 253,000 euros were seized, including a Mercedes. The second defendant, on the other hand, was sentenced to a 200,000 euro fine. Both are not allowed to work in the wine trade for five years.
Their three accomplices received lighter sentences. They were sentenced to suspended prison sentences and fines of 12,000 euros. One defendant was found guilty of transporting wine without papers. All of them together have to pay a fine of 670,000 euros, bringing the total fine to over 1 million euros.
French customs had demanded a fine of around four million dollars from the defendants. This amount was the alleged profit from the counterfeiting operation. After the announcement, both the defendants and the plaintiffs expressed their disappointment with the verdict. The civil plaintiffs, who will receive a small compensation of about 12,500 euro, include the Bordeaux Wine Council (CIVB), the Federation of Great Wines of Bordeaux, the Federation of Negociants of Bordeaux and Libourne, and the Confederation Paysanne.
(ru / Source: Wine Spectator; Photo: pixabay)