Rudy Kurniawan
| Rudy Kurniawan | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Zhen Wang Huang 10 October 1976 Jakarta, Indonesia |
| Residence | Arcadia, California |
| Nationality | Indonesian |
| Other names | "Dr. Conti" |
| Criminal charge | Wine fraud, mail fraud |
| Criminal penalty | 10 years |
| Criminal status | Convicted |
Rudy Kurniawan, birth name Zhen Wang Huang (born 10 October 1976, in Jakarta, Indonesia) is a wine collector and convicted perpetrator of wine fraud.
He came to prominence as a wine connoisseur, and was promoted in 2006 as possessing "arguably the greatest cellar on Earth." Kurniawan was buying large stocks of negociant Burgundy and re-labeling them as more expensive wines, such as Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. He famously consigned several lots of Clos St. Denis from Domaine Ponsot from vintages long prior to any recorded production of Ponsot wines from that vineyard; the auction lots were withdrawn prior to bidding.
Kurniawan was arrested on 8 March 2012 and indicted for selling fake high-end wines at auction. The next year he was convicted and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment.
Kurniawan attended California State University, Northridge, in the late nineties, arriving in the US on a student visa around 1998. His Chinese father reportedly gave him an Indonesian last name to help him maintain "autonomy". It has been said that his transliterated Chinese name is Zhen Wang Huang. In 2003, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ordered Kurniawan to submit to a voluntary deportation; he elected to stay in the United States as an illegal alien.
A 2016 documentary film traces Kurniawan's family in Indonesia, including his mother's two brothers Hendra Rahardja and Eddy Tansil both of whom also committed massive fraud and were sentenced to prison.
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