Wine investment boss jailed

Benedict Moruthoane, a wine investment company director, has been sent to prison for fraud.

The seven-and-a-half-year sentence was handed down by St Albans Crown Court earlier this month, in the wake of a two-month trial.

The fraud in question concerned two wine investment companies, International Wine Commodities – where Moruthoane was a director – and Templar Vintners, a subsequent enterprise which was set up after the closure of the first.

Moruthoane was linked to both companies that together had taken nearly £1 million from investors yet failed to re-invest any of that money back into fine wine.

Before its closure by Hertfordshire police’s economic unit in October 2008, International Wine Commodities is thought to have taken £800,000 from investors. When Templar Vintners was closed in January 2010 it had already taken £100,000.

In January of last year, Guernsey Financial Services Commission issued a warning that Templar Vintners was falsely claiming on its website that it had been authorised by the Commission.

A councillor and Liberal Democrat candidate for North Brent, James Allie, was made company secretary for Templar Vintners to “give a patina of respectability to the fledgling company,” according to investigative wine journalist Jim Budd, who followed the story on his blog.

One client who paid for a case of 2008 Ausone and another of 2008 Lafite received confirmation of his order from a person claiming to be Allie. However, the court ruled that Moruthoane was likely to be the real author and all charges against Allie have been dropped.

Rupert Millar, 20.01.2011