Feds Auction Off Rare, High-End Wine Collection Belonging To Notorious Wine Counterfeiter Rudy Kurniawan

Beginning Tuesday, November 24, United States marshals will conduct an online auction for the private wine collection of Rudy Kurniawan — the infamous counterfeiter who produced and sold millions of dollars in fraudulent wine at auction by carefully mislabeling them.

His preferred method of deceit, prosecutors eventually learned, was to sell "old bottles of wine mixed together." 

During the height of his career, Kurniawan's clients were some of the wealthiest people in the country. The wines he put up for auction yielded record figures, including the most expensive single purchase of wine at auction — $24.7 million for magnums of 1947 Château Lafleur.

As for Kurniawan's own personal collection, which totals more than 4,700 bottles of what authorities verified as authentic wine, the auction begins tomorrow. Prices range from $50 for two bottles of 1987 Georges Faiveley Hospices de Nuits and one bottle of 1983 Château Haut Plantey St. Emillion, up to $135,000 for a magnum of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.