Stephen Burton, a British citizen who was indicted in 2022 on fraud charges related to a $99 million fine wine investing scheme, has been extradited from Morocco and is expected to be arraigned in United States federal court on Saturday.
Burton, along with his partner James Wellesley, has been accused by the Department of Justice of wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy related to a plot he concocted through Bordeaux Cellars, a company he operated.
According to the indictment filed in the Eastern District of New York in 2022, Burton and Wellesley—often using aliases—posed as executives at Bordeaux Cellars and would solicit investments from attendees at investor conferences in the United States and abroad. Burton would tell investors that his company brokered loans with collectors of high-value fine wines that would be collateralized by the collections, which Bordeaux would retain until the loans were paid off.
