AN AMERICAN BILLIONAIRE ACCUSES CHRISTIE’S OF SELLING FALSE VINTAGE WINES: WILLIAM KOCH FILES A SUIT AT NEW YORK COURTHOUSE (SOURCE: APCOM)

The auction house Christie’s would have sold false vintage wines for decades: the complaint was submitted to the New York courts by the U.S. citizen and billionaire William Koch and is the culmination of a three year long legal battle. As reported in the British weekly “The Independent on Sunday”, Koch purchased four bottles of wine in 1988, for $ 300,000 that according to the seller (the German, Hrady Rodenstock) belonged to the third U.S. president, Thomas Jefferson. The billionaire claims to have purchased them at Christie’s because they had also sold other bottles of the same origin. Now, however, Koch says that the bottles are false, that Christie’s knew of their dubious authenticity but preferred to make no mention of it in their catalog. They continued to sell counterfeit wines “for decades”. The auction house flatly rejected the charge.

Source: ApCom