Former Winemaker Indicted and Arrested by Feds on Fraud Charges

NAPA COUNTY, CA – A former Napa Valley winemaker who last year pleaded no contest a charge in state court that he stole grapes is back in trouble - this time with the federal government. Jeffrey Hill was arrested this week on an indictment in federal court in San Francisco charging him with fraud.

The indictment charges Hill with passing off wine made from cheap grapes as if it were pricey cabernets made with grapes from Napa Valley. Prosecutors say that the scheme started no later than August 2012 and ended no earlier than December 2013.

Prosecutors charge that Hill - who ran Hill Wine Company- moved grapes between several facilities to hide the origin of the grapes. Hill allegedly also created false paperwork to obscure where the grapes had come from.

Hill would allegedly tell growers from outside of Napa never to tell anyone that he had bought grapes from them.

The indictment charges Hill allegedly took in more than $1.5 million from customers for fraudulently mislabeled wine, grape juice or wine products.

He was arrested in Clovis, where he now lives, and was released. He pleaded not guilty to all charges. He is due to make his first appearance in federal court in San Francisco on Nov. 16.

He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.