The Wine Thief

He leaped eight minutes after he was scheduled to seem before a Manhattan federal decide for stealing $1.2 million worth of uncommon wines from Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon. Mr. Solomon initially had no concept the wine was even lacking, till he heard from his dealer asking if he knew the bottles had been offered. Mr. Albright was pleased to get his arms on such exceptional inventory however discovered it unusual that the bottles had wound up with a vendor like Mr. Chaland.

Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, identified to wine aficionados as “DRC,” is universally thought of the preeminent French purple Burgundy producer. The estate’s prime wine comes from the Romanée Conti vineyard, after which the Domaine is called. The only two magnums of 2012 Romanée-Conti bought at public sale in the last five years went for a whopping $31,980 and $38,242 each. DeMeyer reached out to Chaland, whose company was on the prime of the Google search, using the alias “Mark Miller,” the name of a deceased vintner who put Hudson Valley wines on the map. “For an actual wine collector, you tag everything, barcode it all, for insurance coverage reasons.

• Works by renowned Norwegian artist Edvard Munch have been stolen thrice in separate heists.
• Peruggia’s crime has been described as the greatest art theft of the twentieth Century, but he and the portray were discovered in Italy two years later.
• He spent two of these eight years stealing and selling their wine, according to an earlier interview with Chaland—who denied knowledge of the bottles’ provenance.

He also did not suspect DeMeyer, who calmly led East Hampton detectives around Solomon’s wine cellar on 7 November 2016, in accordance with a supply who spoke with the New York Post. Worried that they may be counterfeits, Albright put out calls to colleagues who discovered from the serial numbers on the back that they have been actual but stolen. In October 2016, Solomon purchased seven bottles of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.

Wine Theft: Man Accused Of Stealing Uncommon Bottles Falls To Dying

Goldman Sachs wine thief took his own life on the day he was to plead guilty. According to reviews, DeMeyer phoned his sister after checking into Room 3307 at the Carlyle, which fits for $1,300 an evening, and stated he was afraid of life behind bars. According to court paperwork, most of DeMeyer’s dealings with Chaland had been conducted in cash and DeMeyer retained greater than $1 million from the unlawful wine gross sales. At least $153,000 from Wine Liquidators was deposited into DeMeyer’s then-boyfriend’s account from May 2014 to March 2016.

When the DRCs got here again on the market, another connoisseur traced them to Solomon and tipped him off. At a gathering with Solomon and his spouse Mary at the Greenwich Hotel, De Meyer confessed. But somewhat than face potential jail time, he gathered up his sick-gotten gains and launched into a 12 months’s travel to Italy, Morocco, South America, and Switzerland.

Religion & Household

Monet’s Poppy Field at Vetheuil was amongst a host of impressionist paintings pinched from the Emile Bührle Foundation in Zurich in February 2008 by thieves in ski masks. The complete hoard, which additionally included Edgar Degas’ Ludovic Lepic and his Daughter, Van Gogh’s Blossoming Chestnut Branches and Cezanne’s Boy in the Red Vest, had a mixed value of $163 million at the time of theft. The Monet and Van Gogh had been recovered from a close-by parked car shortly after. Windsor remembers listening to about an internship at The New Republic, some time spent working at an art gallery. “I think he was always type of supported by his household,” Windsor says.

David Solomon said the information of his former assistant’s demise “saddened” him. DeMeyer used the alias “Mark Miller” to sell wine he stole to a North Carolina-based wine supplier he positioned on the internet, the indictment stated. Mr. Solomon stated in a statement that he and his wife have been deeply saddened to hear that Mr. De-Meyer had killed himself. “He was near our household for a number of years, and we’re all heartbroken to hear of his tragic end,” Mr. Solomon said.

Goldman Sachs Execs Employee Charged In $1m Wine Theft

Investigators mentioned he stole tons of of bottles of classic wine from the investment banker and bought them to a North Carolina supplier, using the name Mark Miller as an alias. Police mentioned he had used the cash from the sale of the stolen wines to fund a 14-month globe-trotting journey. “It’s a job that burns you out fairly fast,” she stated, including that two or three years is the typical size of time an assistant stays with one household, and five years the longest any assistant with an ego of his personal may fairly abide.