(Reuters) – A British man accused of allegedly defrauding traders of almost $100 million via a Ponzi-like scheme involving nonexistent luxurious wines pleaded not responsible in a U.S. court docket on Saturday.
Stephen Burton, 58, was extradited to New York from Morocco on Friday to face the fees after he was arrested in 2022 after coming into that nation utilizing a faux Zimbabwean passport, authorities mentioned.
Federal prosecutors mentioned that Burton, together with a co-defender, ran Bordeaux Cellars, an organization they mentioned brokered loans between traders and high-net-worth wine collectors.
Burton pleaded not responsible to the indictment which was filed in 2022 and was ordered detained pending trial, based on a spokesperson for the U.S. Legal professional’s workplace.
Burton and co-defendant James Wellesley allegedly solicited $99 million from traders from June 2017 to February 2019, approaching them at locations together with conferences in the US and abroad.
The boys informed lenders that the loans could be backed by wine they saved for rich collectors and promised earnings via curiosity funds, prosecutors alleged.
Nonetheless, these collectors “did not actually exist and Bordeaux Cellars did not maintain custody of the wine purportedly securing the loans,” the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the Japanese District of New York mentioned in an announcement on Saturday.
Reuters couldn’t instantly attain attorneys for Burton and Wellesley. Wellesley, additionally a British citizen, is presently awaiting extradition in the UK.
If convicted, the defendants may every resist 20 years in jail for prices of wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and cash laundering conspiracy.
