A fraudster has been sentenced to three years in jail and fined for RMB 150,000 (US$21,400) for selling counterfeit Australian wine Penfolds in Shanghai, ahead of China’s massive shopping festival Singles Day on November 11, Chinese media reported.
The suspect surnamed Xu is believed to have profited more than RMB 870,000 for selling fake Penfolds to third party distributers who then resold the fakes to other clients in Shanghai and Jiangsu via WeChat, the most popular Chinese social media platform.
Police investigation has led to discovering of 6,000 bottles fake wines with majority being Penfolds, along with QR code, back labels, and anti-fraud stickers.
Penfolds is one of the most known imported wine brands in China, and unfortunately one of the most faked wine brands in the country.
Earlier in China’s southwestern Guangxi province, a wine shop was also found to have sold bottles of fake Penfolds Grange and Bin 707.
China remains Penfolds’ most profitable market. Treasury Wine Estates, the parent company of Penfolds, reported earlier that its profits in Asia led by China were up 48.7% to AU$293.5 million.
