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James Wellesley, 58, pleaded not guilty during his arraignment
Friday in Brooklyn federal court following his extradition from
the United Kingdom, where he was arrested in 2022.
He was ordered detained by a judge pending trial on wire fraud
and money laundering charges.
A lawyer for Wellesley didn't immediately respond to an email
seeking comment.
His co-defendant, Stephen Burton, was extradited from Morocco in
2023 after using a bogus Zimbabwean passport to enter that
country.
Burton, a 60-year-old British national, has also been detained
and pleaded not guilty to similar charges in the same Brooklyn
court.
Prosecutors say the two men ran a company called Bordeaux
Cellars that brokered loans between investors and wealthy wine
collectors that were secured by their wine collections.
From 2017 to 2019, they solicited $99 million in investments
from residents of New York and other areas, promising their
clients that they would profit from interest on the loans.
But the wealthy wine collectors did not exist, no loans were
made, and Bordeaux Cellars did not have custody of the wine
securing the loans, prosecutors say.
Instead, Burton and Wellesley used loan money provided by
investors for themselves and to make fraudulent interest
payments to other investors, prosecutors alleged.
If convicted, the two face up to 20 years in prison each.
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