British Man Pleads Not Guilty in $99M US Wine Fraud Case

James Wellesley, a British man extradited to New York, pleaded not guilty to charges related to a nearly $100 million fraud involving fake loans purportedly backed by valuable wine and wealthy collectors. Along with his business partner Stephen Burton, Wellesley is accused of running a Ponzi-like scheme through Bordeaux Cellars, where they falsely claimed to have an inventory of over 25,000 bottles of high-end wine, though evidence showed far fewer bottles existed. Prosecutors allege the defendants used loan proceeds to pay fraudulent interest to some investors and cover personal expenses, with the scheme collapsing when interest payments stopped. Burton, also charged and held in the same Brooklyn detention center, pleaded guilty in late 2023 after extradition from Morocco. Both men face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Wellesley was ordered detained without bail pending trial after unsuccessfully fighting extradition from the U.K., where a judge ruled the losses mostly occurred or were intended to occur in the U.S.