A convicted property fraudster is heading back to court after allegedly orchestrating a $76m wine-based ponzi scheme.
Andrew Fuller, who renamed himself James Wellesley after the surname of the dukes of Wellington, and Stephen Burton are being taken to court in New York and could face 20 years in prison if found guilty. Burton served as chief executive and Fuller as chief financial officer for Bordeaux Cellars, which took out vast loans backed by cellars stocked with vintage wine.
It is claimed that the wine did not exist and the lenders were paid interest from their own loans, while the rest went to fund Burton and Fuller’s lavish lifestyles.
Fuller, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, appeared at Westminster magistrates’ court on 8 April via video link from Wandsworth Prison in south London as part of extradition proceedings. He had been arrested by Metropolitan Police officers on 4 February. Burton’s whereabouts are unknown.
The court papers allege that the swindle took place between June 2017 and February 2019, as the men attended investment conferences in the US and other countries.
Fuller previously served jail time for fraud after borrowing £5.7m for a property scheme in Kent involving 19 luxury apartments and failing to repay the loan after the bottom fell out of the market.
It emerged that Fuller, who sold the flats without informing the bank, kept about £3.5m of the proceeds, using the money to fund a lavish lifestyle in south-east Asia, where he changed his name to Andrew Templar.
He was eventually arrested when he returned to Britain to visit his family and sentenced to six years’ imprisonment after admitting fraud, forgery and possession with intent to use a false identity at Maidstone Crown Court in 2013.
Fuller’s extradition case has been adjourned to 22 April.
