Brooklyn federal Judge Pamela K. Chen on Monday, April 20, 2026, sentenced James Wellesley, a 59-year-old United Kingdom citizen who used aliases including Andrew Fuller, to 10 years in prison for his role in a wine-investment fraud that prosecutors say siphoned more than $97 million from more than 140 investors around the world. The sentence caps a yearslong probe into Bordeaux Cellars, which authorities say brokered loans it never properly secured and used new investor money to pay previous lenders.
In a press release via the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York, the office said Judge Chen also ordered Wellesley to forfeit $1 million and postponed the imposition of restitution while authorities trace assets. The release says prosecutors traced a scheme that solicited over $97 million between 2017 and 2019 and returned only about $14 million, leaving victims with roughly $83 million in losses.
Prosecutors say Wellesley and his partner Stephen Burton ran Bordeaux Cellars, pitching short-term loans that were purportedly secured by prized bottles and recruiting lenders at investor conferences. Reporters who followed the case describe a business built on shell companies and bogus borrower identities. Coverage in outlets that tracked the investigation reported that the two men moved funds internationally and used incoming investment dollars to pay earlier lenders until payments stopped and the scheme collapsed. As reported by Fortune, the indictment spans multiple jurisdictions and drew scrutiny from regulators and private litigants.
“Unlike a fine vintage that improves over time, the defendant will spend years in prison to reflect on his fraudulent wine scheme,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said in a statement via the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York. The release also quoted an FBI official emphasizing cross-border cooperation that led investigators to accounts and documents in the U.K., Morocco and Belize.
How the Scheme Worked
According to reporting and court filings, Wellesley and Burton promised lenders high interest rates, sometimes advertised as double-digit, and said the loans would be capped at a fraction of the wines’ market value and stored in secure facilities. Investigations found that many of the named collectors did not exist and that some of the loan paperwork relied on opaque corporate shells. Industry coverage broke down how the business model depended on perpetual rollovers and fabricated collateral. Wine Spectator and other outlets have detailed the ledger inconsistencies that alerted victims and authorities.
Co-Defendant and What’s Next
Burton pleaded guilty in July 2025 to wire fraud conspiracy and money-laundering conspiracy and is awaiting sentencing, a development that prosecutors said helped clarify the full pattern of payments and transfers. The case will now move into restitution and asset-tracing phases as courts determine how to compensate victims whose losses prosecutors say total in the tens of millions. Fortune has tracked the timeline of pleas and extraditions.
Legal Implications
The convictions reflect federal prosecutors’ push to treat sophisticated investment frauds as major cross-border crimes, and the statutory maximums for the underlying offenses reach 20 years. Sentencing ranges, however, depend heavily on loss amounts and criminal history, and prosecutors’ evidence of international transfers and fabricated documents appears to have factored into the decade-long term handed down today.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office also posted the sentencing announcement to X, where the office summarized the sentence and linked the press release. The post is available on X. Investigators say the case underscores risks in niche alternative investments and the challenge of recovering funds moved through international accounts.
