An Indonesian national has been featuring in the news for all the wrong reasons, after being caught peddling counterfeit wine in the United States.
According to a BBC story (see here), Rudy Kurniawan was found to have run a counterfeiting operation from 2004 to 2012. During this time he mixed vintage wine with newer batches, and filled and labelled his own bottles. These were then sold at auction. He was ordered to pay USD28.4million in compensation to victims, which presumably represents the value of sales over that time - not insignificant. The Court also sentenced him to serve 10 years and to pay USD20million in fines.
Counterfeiting is a huge problem in Indonesia, but we rarely see cases concerning wine. That would be because levels of consumption are relatively low. Here's hoping counterfeit wine doesn’t become a problem when Kurniawan is returned to Indonesia after serving his time.