A British fraudster has confessed to participating in a bold £75 million scam where investors were lured with promises of high returns on loans supposedly backed by rare vintage wines that did not actually exist.
James Wellesley, a 59-year-old man also known as Andrew Fuller and Andrew Templar, pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy in a New York court as part of the intricate global deception. He could face up to 12.5 years in prison based on federal sentencing guidelines and has agreed to surrender £745,000 along with funds from over 25 bank accounts. Wellesley is currently detained at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn after his extradition from the UK was unsuccessful.
His legal representative declined to provide a statement. Another accomplice, Stephen Burton, aged 61 and also from Britain, previously admitted guilt in July to wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy.
Wellesley, a disbarred British attorney, has accepted a £19.4 million forfeiture order and is currently incarcerated in New York. According to US prosecutors, the duo posed as executives of a fictitious company named Bordeaux Cellars to promote their fraudulent investment scheme from 2017 to 2019. They traversed the globe, pitching their false enterprise at prestigious investment events in cities like London and New York, convincing victims that their investments were backed by a high-end collection of vintage wines.
The alleged wine inventory included renowned labels such as Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Château Lafleur, with claimed values of £12,600 and £3,730 per bottle, respectively. However, prosecutors assert that neither the wines nor the collectors were genuine.
Instead, Wellesley and Burton purportedly operated a Ponzi-style swindle, using new investors’ funds to pay fabricated returns to earlier investors while siphoning off millions for themselves. FBI Assistant Director Christopher Raia previously remarked that Wellesley and his partner orchestrated an elaborate scheme to defraud investors for personal gain over an extended period.
Homeland Security special agent Ricky Patel also condemned the defendants for allegedly orchestrating a nearly $100 million international fraud, exploiting unsuspecting individuals, including New Yorkers, for their own enrichment. Patel emphasized that law enforcement would persist in pursuing financial criminals globally, adapting to combat transnational schemes effectively.
Burton was apprehended in Morocco in 2022 while attempting to enter the country with a counterfeit Zimbabwean passport. He was later extradited to the US in December 2023. Court records indicate that Burton’s sentencing is set for January 6, 2026, while Wellesley’s sentencing is scheduled for February 3.