THE OPERA STAR AND THE WINE SCAM

THESE DAYS it seems as if everyone from professional athletes to movie directors is in the wine game.  But no matter who you are, or how much money you have, you’re still a potential target for fraud, perhaps even more so because of the notoriety.  Opera star Andrea Bocelli was scammed by conmen after they produced tens of thousands of fake bottles of his own branded wine – and sold it for up to ten times the price.  The rip-off versions of Bocelli a Lajatico were sold in Italy and abroad alongside fake bottles of other classic Italian wines, such as Chianti and Brunello.  The huge fraud sheds light on the counterfeit wine trade from which criminal gangs in the agribusiness sector reap millions.  The bottles – which were falsely marked as Brunello di Montalcino, Chiantis and the opera singer’s own brand – were exposed by police in Tuscany, after a series of raids.  The wines were said to be of poor quality but carried the highly-prized DOCG label.  Investigators trawled wine cellars, shops, supermarkets and bottling factories to undercover the scam.  The blind opera star owns a family winery near Pisa with his brother Alberto, which produces about 3OO bottles a year.  Six people are under investigation for fraud and counterfeit.