Hennessy Cognac fraudster sentenced in China

 The ringleader of a Chinese counterfeiting gang has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for producing fake Hennessy Cognac by substituting with Louis Royer.

The Intermediate People’s Court of Huizhou City in Guangdong Province announced a fraud involved the selling of fake Hennessy Cognac in the city.

The gang comprised a group of counterfeits producers and distributors who began running the scam in 2017.

According to the announcement, they set up a factory and hired a “blending master” to help create the fake Hennessy Cognac by using Louis Royer Cognac as the base ingredients and topped with caramel colouring.

After bottling the processed Cognac with fake Hennessy packaging, the distributors deliberately sold the counterfeit bottles to their private clients.

As reported, the total sales amount of the scam reached 3.4 million RMB. The gang was busted in December 2018 and they were accused of infringing the registered trademark, producing and selling inferior and counterfeits.

Based on this, the court sentenced the chief conspirator for 15 years in prison and fined him 1.8 million RMB. The fraudster tried to file an appeal claiming the Louis Royer Cognac used in the operation was of the same standard of Hennessy and that the court can’t accuse him for selling inferior products.

The other gang members were sentenced to between one and 10 years and 6 months in prison and were fined 3-60 million RMB.