Berkeley Wine Shop Owner Sentenced To Prison For Wine Ponzi Scheme

BERKELEY, CA — The former owner of now-bankrupt Premier Cru wine shop in Berkeley, John E. Fox, has been sentence to 78 months in prison for wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Fox pleaded guilty plea in August to using his wine shop to run a multi-million-dollar wine Ponzi scheme.

Premier Cru, which was on University Avenue, is where Fox orchestrated a massive scheme to defraud customers. He admitted that, in many instances, he falsified purchase orders for wine he had never contracted to purchase, entered the phantom wine into Premier Cru’s inventory for sale, and then sold or caused Premier Cru’s salespeople to sell the phantom wine.

Between 2010 and 2015, he sold or attempted to sell approximately $20 million worth of phantom wine that he had never actually purchased prior to entering them onto Premier Cru’s inventory.

Fox also admitted to embezzling money to pay for personal credit cards; memberships to private golf clubs; the purchase or lease of expensive cars including Corvettes, Ferraris, a Maserati, and various Mercedes-Benzes; and a variety of additional personal expenses, including more than $900,000 on women he met online.

Premier Cru eventually filed for bankruptcy. At that point, the business owed approximately $45 million.

In sentencing Fox, Judge James Donato referred to Fox’s conduct as, “a long running empire of deception.” Fox is in custody and will begin serving his sentence immediately.

A hearing on restitution was scheduled for next year.

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