Prosecutors in japanese France on Wednesday requested a winemaker accused of manufacturing and promoting faux champagne in an elaborate rip-off be sentenced to 4 years in jail, with three years of the time period suspended.
Didier Chopin, 56, was additionally requested to pay a advantageous of 100,000 euros on fees of fraud and theft of a protected model title on the trial, which began on Tuesday.
The winemaker from the Aisne area produced and offered tons of of 1000’s of faux champagne bottles for a 12 months, between 2022 and 2023. He produced the champagne with wines from Spain and southern France, to which he added aromas and carbonised fuel to make them glowing.
The whole worth of the fraud was estimated at a number of tens of millions of euros.
The prosecution on the Reims prison courtroom additionally requested that the winemaker’s spouse incur a suspended jail sentence of two years and a advantageous of 100,000 euros on the identical fees of fraud and theft of a protected model title.
The prosecution denounced “a cynical and premeditated logic of revenue,” and requested that the couple be definitively banned from operating a enterprise and from exercising any industrial or industrial professions within the champagne sector.
The confiscation of all seized possessions and the destruction of all seized bottles was additionally requested.
The couple’s holding firm, SAS Chopin, was requested to pay a 300,000 euro advantageous on fees of embezzlement and misuse of firm belongings.
The courtroom is predicted to announce its verdict on September 2.
“It is a unhappy conclusion. I made a mistake, I’m ruined and I’ve nothing else so as to add,” Chopin instructed reporters.
The winemaker’s lawyer, Francis Fossier, had argued for a completely suspended jail sentence. His consumer had already spent “seven months” in jail in Morocco “in horrible situations,” mentioned Fossier.
After the champagne fraud was revealed by former workers in 2023, Chopin had fled to Morocco and launched a brand new vegetable farming enterprise there. He was then arrested, convicted and sentenced to jail on accusations linked to uncovered cheques.
The a part of the trial regarding customs violations — in regards to the export of the faux champagne exterior of France — has been adjourned to February 3, 2026.
The winemaker additionally faces one other authorized process after 5 former workers accused him of sexual assault.
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