Investors paid thousands for rare wines. It was a scam, feds say

Windsor Jones’s website promises “the acquisition and sale of the world’s most illustrious and pleasurable Bordeaux investment grade fine wine.” A digital carousel showcases a selection of vino that’d make a collector red with envy. An embedded video features a master sommelier noting Bordeaux’s rich history and geography as reasons the French region’s wine has become a “commodity practically traded now like stocks and shares.”

But a new court case alleges the investment opportunity was all part of a ploy. According to an arrest affidavit, representatives for Windsor Jones, along with two other companies, Charles Winn and Vintage Whisky Casks, are accused of running an international scheme that involved cold-calling, fake names and British accents. The companies – which all purported to operate between the United States and United Kingdom – swindled more than $13 million from at least 150 people, federal investigators allege.

The five-year, twocontinent saga resulted in last week’s arrest of Casey Alexander, who resides in England, on a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Alexander is accused of working for the three companies that allegedly defrauded investors by dangling promises of high returns on their investments in rare wines and whiskeys.

An unnamed 89-yearold from Ohio and a 73year-old from Michigan are among the scores of victims. The octogenarian dropped over $300,000 on rare dessert wines and a purported storage locker in France, according to court records. Meanwhile, the septuagenarian wired over $85,000 to Charles Winn in the hopes of receiving a potential return of up to 40% and an opportunity to tap into the Chinese market. Neither saw their supposed investments bear fruit, according to the documents.

According to investigators, Windsor Jones, Charles Winn and Vintage Whisky Casks used “aggressive and deceptive tactics” on the elderly people whose numbers they obtained. The scheme involved a complicated web of limited liability companies, investigators said, that were supposedly headquartered in the U.K. but that had been registered in Delaware back in 2017, online records show.

Victims reported being cold-called by representatives with Delaware phone numbers wielding British accents and fake names. In some cases, investigators found, they were contacted by callers “using the same name, for example ‘Elliot Stewart,’” even if they worked for different companies.

After paying a hefty price, some individuals would later consider pulling out of the investment — only to be ghosted or handed excuses by the supposed brokerage programs, according to the affidavit.

The FBI became involved in the case after the 89-year-old Ohioan reported it to police.