Sour grapes: Indonesian wine fraudster Rudy Kurniawan deported from US after seven years in prison

Prosecutors at Kurniawan’s trial said he made millions of dollars from 2004 to 2012 by putting less expensive Napa and Burgundy wines into counterfeit bottles

At his sentencing, Kurniawan was ordered to pay US$28.4 million in restitution to seven victims and to forfeit US$20 million in property

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Rudy Kurniawan was convicted of mail and wire fraud in 2013 in a New York federal court. Photo: AP

Published: 10:45am, 14 Apr 2021Updated: 11:49am, 14 Apr 2021

A one-time California man who scammed wine collectors out of millions by selling cheaper booze he rebottled in his kitchen has been deported to his native Indonesia, US immigration officials said.

Rudy Kurniawan, 44, was deported last week on a commercial flight from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to Tangerang City, Bann, Indonesia, according to a statement from US Customs and Immigration Enforcement released on Tuesday.

“He is a public safety threat because of his aggravated felony conviction,” the statement said.

Kurniawan travelled to the US on a student visa in the 1990s. He unsuccessfully sought political asylum and was ordered to voluntarily leave the country in 2003 but stayed on illegally, authorities said.

Kurniawan, whose family gained wealth operating a beer distributorship in Indonesia, was convicted of mail and wire fraud in 2013 in a New York federal court and spent seven years in prison. He was deported after being released from prison into immigration custody last November.

In a very public black eye for the wine industry, prosecutors at Kurniawan’s New York trial said he made millions of dollars from 2004 to 2012 by putting less expensive Napa and Burgundy wines into counterfeit bottles at his home in the Los Angeles suburb of Arcadia.