The $1.3 million wine scam (NZ)

Like the fine wine he promised to multi-millionaire investors, Simon Mickleson displayed a complex character. His clients didn’t know the self-proclaimed wine expert with money and contacts was a serial conman who faked vintage wines by doctoring bottle labels, stole credit cards, took cash for wine he did not have, and sold historic chateau cases he didn’t own for thousands of dollars. Yesterday he was convicted of 16 counts of fraud after being charged with a $1.3 million scam that took in New Zealand’s top auction house, a leading surgeon, senior law firm partners, and the lawyer to the Todd Property Group – owned by New Zealand’s richest family, reports The New Zealand Herald.