Chronicle of a Bordeaux Wine Fraud

There were supposed to be ten cases of fine wine sold to the restaurateur, who however foiled the scam by having a convicted criminal arrested.

The fraud against a restaurateur in Bra, a small town in the province of Cuneo, according to the reconstruction made by the carabinieri who intervened to stop the fraudsters, followed a predefined scheme: a woman, during a phone call to book a dinner for 8–10 people, would request around ten bottles of Bordeaux, a fine wine from the French region. Since the restaurateur did not have the requested product in stock, he would have had to order it from another supplier – but the woman promptly offered her help through a friend who was a sales representative and who would deliver the Bordeaux bottles for the booked dinner, a total order estimated at around one thousand euros.

The restaurateur immediately grew suspicious and alerted the Carabinieri, who promptly intervened with surveillance and undercover tailing while awaiting delivery of the wine order – which was presumably part of a scam. The Carabinieri's discovery was striking: the wine, presented as fine and sold for thousands of euros, was in fact a low-quality wine also sold in discount stores – anything but fine or expensive.

During the searches, several wine packages were seized. The man, a 55-year-old with a prior criminal record, had – based on various assessments – planned to defraud multiple businesses and restaurateurs in the area. Investigations are still ongoing to determine how many merchants fell victim to the wine fraud.

Furthermore, investigators are examining whether other recent frauds can be traced back to the same group of swindlers, and are working to identify the accomplices as well. The Carabinieri promptly seized all tools used to carry out the fraud.