Convicted Fraudster Rudy Kurniawan Loses Bid For Freedom (again)
Rudy Kurniawan Once Again Fails To Have His Conviction Overturned
In breaking news, convicted fraudster Rudy Kurniawan has lost yet another attempt to have his conviction squashed. For those of you who have never heard the name Rudy Kurniawan, he is an Indonesian born man who moved to the United States. For a while, he had built up a reputation for being one of the world’s foremost authorities in the world of wine, with a particular interest in all wines from Burgundy. This led him to get the nickname Dr Conti. He was later arrested and convicted to 10 years by a Manhattan Court, for one count of mail fraud (creating & selling counterfeit wines) and one count of wire fraud for defrauding a financing company over a US$3 million loan.
On Monday, Rudy’s lawyers tried to convince U.S. District Judge Richard Berman that his old lawyers failed to do their jobs correctly and should have in fact demanded hearings which could have led to all the evidence found in his house to be suppressed. And when I say evidence found in his house, I mean there were hundreds and hundreds of of fake bottles and labels which the FBI confiscated.
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman indicated that even had his then lawyers held the hearings he had wanted, they most likely would’t have made the slightest bit of difference because the authorities involved already had cause to suspect that Rudy Kurinawan was involved in selling fake, rare wines.
Rudy, who was 40 at the time of his arrest in California (March 8, 2012) tried previously to have his conviction overturned. However in 2015 when he last tried, the outcome was much the same as that of yesterday’s.
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Past Stories We’ve Done On Rudy Kurniawan:
Life After Rudy – looking ahead
The latest news on Rudy Kurniawan – and why it makes the wine industry uncomfortable
Rudy Kurniawan Has Been Arrested
Back in the news again – I can’t believe it’s not Petrus
