Seizure of Evidence at Wine Seller’s Home Ruled Legal
Seizure of Evidence at Wine Seller’s Home Ruled Legal
Jan 17, 2013 6
FBI agents’ seizure of evidence at the home of a California man accused of selling more than $1.3 million in counterfeit vintage wines was legal and can be used at trial, a judge ruled.
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman in New York said today that the Federal Bureau of Investigation agents didn’t violate Rudy Kurniawan’s constitutional rights against unlawful search and seizure last year when they gathered the evidence at his home in Arcadia, California.
Prosecutors said Kurniawan, an Indonesian national, had a “laboratory for creating counterfeit wine” in his home, including thousands of printed wine labels for many of the world’s most expensive wines, such as Domaine de la Romanee- Conti and Chateau Petrus. Kurniawan was arrested March 8 and accused of consigning at least 84 counterfeit bottles of Burgundy to a New York auction house.
Comments