BREAKING WINE SCAM ALERT - British "Wine Investor" Pleads NOT GUILTY in $127M Fraud Case

 

🔥 BREAKING WINE SCAM ALERT 🍷💼
British "Wine Investor" Pleads NOT GUILTY in $127M Fraud Case 😱⚖️

🗓 Date: July 11, 2025
📍 Location: Brooklyn Federal Court, New York
🚨 Defendant: James Wellesley (aka Andrew Fuller)

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💥 $127 MILLION Wine Scheme? Here's What Went Down:

Two British men—James Wellesley and Stephen Burton—are accused of swirling up a massive Ponzi-style investment scam through their shady business, Bordeaux Cellars. 🍇🏦

They claimed to offer luxury wine-backed loans 🍾 to investors, backed by elite collections from names like Domaine de la Romanée‑Conti and Château Lafleur. Supposedly, they stored over 25,000 bottles.

🤔 Reality check?
📦 Investigators say there were just 217 actual bottles—and those fancy wine collectors? Totally made up. 🚫

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💸 Where Did the Money Go?

Instead of investing funds as promised:

• They allegedly paid off earlier investors to fake profit 💵📉

• And used the rest on personal luxuries 🏖️🛍️

📅 This fake-wine-finance scheme ran from June 2017 to February 2019, netting a jaw-dropping $99.4 million from trusting investors.

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👮‍♂️ The Legal Lowdown:

• Wellesley was extradited from the UK in 2022. He stood before the court this week and pleaded not guilty.

• Burton was extradited from Morocco in 2023 and also pleaded not guilty last December.

• Both men are currently detained without bail.

📈 Potential Sentence?
Up to 20 years in prison if convicted. 😬

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🧑‍⚖️ What’s Next?

The case—U.S. v. Burton et al—is heating up in New York's Eastern District Court.
Prosecutors are digging deep, and the pretrial phase (including discovery and hearings) is just getting started.

With allegations this explosive, the courtroom drama could be uncorked for months. 🍷⚖️🔥

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📢 Sound Off:

Would YOU invest in wine as an asset? Or is this just another rich man’s scam gone viral? 🧐👇

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🧵 Stay locked to Feed Earn for more courtroom tea, finance frauds, and viral headlines!

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