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Fortune
Fortune
Lily Mae Lazarus

​​Inside the $99 million luxury wine scam that fooled over 100 global investors

Stephen Burton Luxury Fortune Prison United States
wine bottles (Credit: niromaks—Getty Images)
  • Stephen Burton, founder of Bordeaux Cellars, pled guilty to federal charges on Thursday after he and his business partner, James Wellesley, were accused of running a fraudulent wine lending business that ripped off more than 100 victims across the world.

Two childhood friends have found themselves at the center of a multimillion-dollar fraud prosecution in New York after what started as a luxury wine lending business promising lucrative returns cost investors nearly $100 million.

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