Steele works harder as tracking down counterfeiters gets tricky
It was one of the more curious cases Philip Curlewis, Asia-Pacific managing director for the Steele Foundation, has ever countered. About five years ago, China, infamous as a source of knock-off products, was on the receiving end of an overseas counterfeiting ring that specialised in fake Bordeaux wine.
'Wine was just becoming the social thing to drink, but local drinkers didn't know the real taste - they were mixing it with Coke and making spritzers,' Mr Curlewis recalls. 'Counterfeiters bought genuine Bordeaux bottles, corks from Portugal and Malaysia, and stencils for the labels. They took a cheap wine and re-engineered it with sugars to the point where on initial inspection it would appear to be Bordeaux.
'Only on examination of the metal and soil content could it be identified as a cheap wine from just outside Barcelona.'
Mr Curlewis' investigation first took him to Pauillac, outside Bordeaux, to learn about bottle markings and the manufacturing process.
Following a combination of raids on Chinese retailers, surveillance and posing as customers, his team eventually found documents leading to Europe.
The paper trail snaked its way through six different jurisdictions, from a trading company in Hong Kong that accepted orders and organised shipping, Swiss banks that received the funds, a front company in Holland and the original wine sourced from Spain.