1855 lose another court case this time in Arcachon

Chai@Château Margaux

Lawyer Hélène Poulou has had a further success against the fraudulent internet wine company – 1855. This time at Archachon on Friday 12th October 2012. He represented a local client of 1855, who had ordered three bottles of en primeur Bordeaux at the end of April 2009 – Chx: Margaux, Haut-Brion and Angelus. 1855 contracted to deliver them at the latest by Spring 2011. The client is still waiting for his wine.

The court has ordered 1855 to deliver the three wines. If it fails 1855 will have to pay 50 euros a day. The fraudulent company has also been ordered to pay the client 500 euros in compensation plus 500 euros of costs. 

Little surprise that shares in 1855 slid briefly to 0.02c yesterday on the Paris Bourse. They have since recovered slightly and are now at 0.03c.   

1855: same problems with Cave Privée

10 Rue des Moulins, Paris – the offices of 1855 are here

The growing 145-page thread on La Passion du Vin clearly shows that the long-term problems customers face with 1855 in getting their wines are now being experienced by people who order through Cave Privée. Cave Privée is now owned by 1855 and is managed by that genius – Fabien Hyon. 

Some customers do get their wine but it is frequently months late and meanwhile they get fobbed off with the same sort of lame excuses and unfulfilled promises that clients of 1855 experience. My guess is that some of the delays are due to producers either not wishing to deal with the crooks that run 1855 and Cave Privée or not being paid and therefore not supplying Fabien Hyon and Emeric Sauty de Chalon with wine.

The advice given by a number of La Passion du Vin posters not to deal with Cave Privée is surely wise and eminently sensible.   

1855 Assemblée Générale (AG): how long will Jean-Pierre Meyers continue to support these crooks?

The spirit of Charles Ponzi will be at 1855's Assemblée Générale today

1855 will hold its AGM for its shareholders today at the Hotel Ibis Ledru Rollin  close to the Gare du Lyon in Paris – starting time 10.30h.

It would be good to think that they will take this opportunity to demand that Emeric Sauty de Chalon and Fabien Hyon start running 1855 and its associated companies – Cavée Privée and Châteauonline – as proper businesses and cease to defraud their customers by failing to supply the wines, especially Bordeaux en primeur, ordered. That they will also ask how many hundreds of court cases 1855 is currently facing. 

Will they ask about the latest mention of 1855 in La Revue du Vin de France?

They might also ask these internet geniuses why share information for investors isn't updated. They manage to change to the date but not the share price nor the company valuation nor the number of shares. Come Fabien Hyon get yourself organised!

1855's version of their share price etc 0.07€ a share

 The reality: 0.04€ a share

I fancy the chances of the investors asking pressing questions are as probably as slim as the Bordelais, apart from a few honorable exceptions, having the courage to condemn 1855 and warn people not to deal with them. 

No my guess is that the most pressing concern for Emeric Sauty de Chalon, Fabien Hyon and the investors is how much longer will Jean-Pierre Meyers be prepared to support this scam. When will he decide that the damage his association with 1855  does to his reputation as one of France's most prominent businessmen is too great? What I wonder do Jean-Pierre Meyers' fellow directors at L'Oréal and Nestlé make of his support for 1855?    

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Emeric Sauty de Chalon's amended invitation to 1855 investors: 

'Batir la première arnaque mondiale dans la vente de grands vins' 

1855: record Ponzi sentences – an appropriate tariff for Emeric Sauty de Chalon and Fabien Hyon?

10 Rue des Moulins (Maison Ponzi?), Paris where the offices of 1855 are located 

Last week Allen Stanford was sentenced to 110 years in jail for running a Ponzi scheme:

'Allen Stanford jailed for 110 years for $7bn Ponzi (14th June 2012)

Disgraced tycoon Allen Stanford has been sentenced to 110 years in jail for operating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of more than $7bn (£4.5bn).'

Details on the BBC news here. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18450893

Substantial although Stanford's 110 year sentence is, it is easily eclipsed by 150 years given to Ponzi king – Bernard Madoff:

'Bernard Madoff jailed after pleading guilty to Ponzi fraud (12th March 2009)

Bernard Madoff, the disgraced Wall Street financier, was jailed after pleading guilty in New York to masterminding one of the biggest ever corporate frauds – a $50bn Ponzi scheme.

The 70-year-old, dressed in a grey business suit, was led out of court in handcuffs after Judge Denny Chin ordered that he should be held pending sentencing on June 16. He faces a maximum 150-year jail sentence.

Read the rest of the Daily Telegraph article here.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/bernard-madoff/4980025/Bernard-Madoff-jailed-after-pleading-guilty-to-Ponzi-fraud.html

The huge sentences handed down to Madoff and Stanford raises some intriguing questions in respect to 1855 and, in particular, to Emeric Sauty de Chalon and Fabien Hyon. If these two scamsters were ever tried and convicted of fraud what would be an appropriate sentence – what tariff ought to be applied?

There are naturally a number of caveats here. 

Neither Emeric Sauty de Chalon nor Fabien Hyon has yet been charged with any crime. Indeed they appear to continue to enjoy a high level of protection allowing them to continue to fleece a significant proportion of their customers with apparent impunity. As Emeric de Sauty de Chalon said in a video here the internet is 'une utile magique' (I assume he meant a wonderful invention for trousering your customers' money). 

Clearly some people get their wines, even those who order Bordeaux en primeur. However, the blizzard of court cases against 1855 graphically demonstrates, a significant number do not and are systematically fobbed off with unfulfilled promises assuming that they are able to contact 1855 – a big assumption! 

It is also clear that, although the frauds perpetrated by 1855 have been going on for some considerable time, they are nowhere near the magnitude of those committed by Stanford and Madoff.  

So what would be, if the circumstances arose, an appropriate punishment for Emeric Sauty de Chalon and Fabien Hyon?  

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Shares in 1855 today traded between 0.03€ and 0.05€. Trading closed at 0.04€ and most of today's transactions were at 0.04€. 

  

Encounter with 1855 victim@Decanter Bordeaux event

Marie-Laure Lurton@Decanter Bordeaux Fine Wine Encounter

Asked to give one the three seminars on Bordeaux en primeur@The Decanter Bordeaux Fine Wine Encounter yesterday at the Landmark Hotel (London), I concentrated on the pitfalls and the inherent risks involved in en primeur. Risks that are difficult to reduce due to buying a product that can't be identified until, at least, it has been bottled. 

Although there are customarily no problems when buying through established and reputable companies, I mentioned a number of scam companies and warned that there have been problems with some legitimate companies citing Greens, The Hungerford Wine Company, Uvine, Cellaret and Mayfair Cellars. Naturally I strongly advised the 60 strong audience not to buy from 1855, France's leading Ponzi internet wine company run by Emeric Sauty de Chalon and Fabien Hyon. 

At the end of the short seminar when most of the audience had gone off to taste a range of 2011s, a frustrated client of 1855 came up. He had ordered and received a quantity of Bordeaux en primeur from 1855. Unfortunately there was still £1200 worth outstanding and despite emails and phone calls no sign of his wine. I advised him to get legal advice and suggested he contact Gwendoline Cattier in Paris.  

Shares in 1855 traded briefly at 0.03€, the lowest level for 2012, before moving back to 0.04€.    

  

Part of the Bordeaux Fine Wine Encounter 

Agathe de Langhe, Château Brown (Pessac-Léognan)   

Paulin Calvet (Château Pique Caillou, Pessac-Léognan)

Philippe Baly (Château Coutet, Barsac): above and below

Diligent research (above and below)

1855: shares sink back to 0.04€

Château Pontet-Canet: 2006 ordered in 2007 and still not delivered although 1855 claimed it would be available in spring 2009

In early June shares in 1855 (France's leading wine internet Ponzi scheme) fell to 0.04€ their lowest value this year. After a brief rally back up to 0.06€ they have now fallen back to 0.04€. Only a year ago 1855 shares were trading at 0.17€ and in 2011 they reached a high of 0.21€, while the low was as this year – 0.04€. To date the high for 2012 is 0.10€. Most of the trading for this year has been between 0.05€ and 0.06€. Five years ago shares in 1855 traded as high as 3.84€, so now ought to be considered as 'junk bonds'.  

Does the current level of 0.04€ indicate that shareholders are becoming increasing concerned over the blizzard of court cases that 1855 now faces raising doubts whether the company can pay the compensations awarded to their customers by the courts. Is there also a fear that the arrival of François Hollande as the new French president that the high level protection 1855 appears to have previously enjoyed may now disappear or lessen. After all if the DGCCRF can move against an alleged fraud committed by Burgundy négociant  Labourié-Roi, why can't they move against Emeric Sauty de Chalon, Fabien Hyon and close down 1855? 

Two screenshots (taken this evening) from 1855.com site showing that 2006s from Châteaux Lynch Bages and Pontet Canet are currently available on the site for delivery within 10 days. Yet customer YU ordered two bottles of each back in July 2007 for delivery in the spring 2007 and is still waiting for his wines to be delivered!!  

How long will Jean-Pierre Meyers be prepared to be associated with this 1855 scam? 

    

Château Latour: a blow to 1855's business model?

Château Latour: no en primeur from 2012

The news that Château Latour will no longer sell its wines en primeur from the 2012 vintage may well be a blow to 1855's wallet thinning business model of taking (trousering) money from its clients for en primeur and then delaying delivery as long as possible and, in some instances, not at all.

Latour have announced that they will only be releasing their wines when they are ready to drink. Much will depend upon whether the other leading Bordeaux châteaux follow suit. If the whole en primeur system was to change dramatically this could well have a serious effect on 1855's already precarious cash flow. Fabien Hyon has spoken of 1855's intention to reduce the proportion its en primeur sales. This may only be an acknowledgment that there was less demand for en primeur in 2010 and that fewer and fewer people ar prepared to order en primeur through 1855.

A lawyer who is involved with a number of cases against 1855 told me recently:

'The 1855’s case is totally unbelievable. I do not know the number of legal cases against 1855.

Few months ago, there were more than 200 cases before the business court and more than 80 cases before the Civil Court and many many cases before the Tribunal d’instance.'

Equally unbelieveable is that France's Repression des Fraudes haven't stepped in and that neither the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux nor the Conseil des Grands Crus Classés have have had the courage to issue any warning against 1855's appalling business 'practices'.

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Of course should the other leading Bordeaux châteaux follow Latour's lead it is likely to have implications for the wine investment market including stopping the 'en primeur take the money and run scam' and also perhaps for the power of some leading wine critics whose scores and reports following the annual en primeur tastings are currently eagerly awaited. 

Don't expect Latour 2011 en primeur to be cheap!

Carbon emissions

Early estimates suggest that ending the annual en primeur tasting would reduce the Bordeaux region's carbon emissions by a staggering 1.46%.