British man extradited to U.S. to face federal charges in alleged US$99 million wine scam

Two glasses of white wine. (Valeria Boltneva/Pexels)

NEW YORK — A British man has been brought to the U.S. to face charges in connection with an alleged US$99 million Ponzi-like fraud involving expensive wines.

James Wellesley, 58, pleaded not guilty during his arraignment Friday in Brooklyn federal court following his extradition from the United Kingdom, where he was arrested in 2022.

He was ordered detained by a judge pending trial on wire fraud and money laundering charges.

A lawyer for Wellesley didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

His co-defendant, Stephen Burton, was extradited from Morocco in 2023 after using a bogus Zimbabwean passport to enter that country.

Burton, a 60-year-old British national, has also been detained and pleaded not guilty to similar charges in the same Brooklyn court.

Prosecutors say the two men ran a company called Bordeaux Cellars that brokered loans between investors and wealthy wine collectors that were secured by their wine collections.

From 2017 to 2019, they solicited $99 million in investments from residents of New York and other areas, promising their clients that they would profit from interest on the loans.

But the wealthy wine collectors did not exist, no loans were made, and Bordeaux Cellars did not have custody of the wine securing the loans, prosecutors say.

Instead, Burton and Wellesley used loan money provided by investors for themselves and to make fraudulent interest payments to other investors, prosecutors alleged.

If convicted, the two face up to 20 years in prison each.

The Associated Press