John E. Fox, the 66-year-old former owner of Premier Cru, a now-shuttered wine shop in Berkeley, has been sentenced to 78 months in federal prison for masterminding a multi-million-dollar wine Ponzi scheme that defrauded customers out of tens of millions. The verdict, handed down by U.S. District Judge James Donato, marks the end of a decades-long fraud operation disguised as a high-end wine business.
Fox, of Concord, Calif., co-founded Premier Cru in 1980 and moved it to University Avenue in Berkeley, where he built a reputation as a purveyor of rare vintages. But behind the polished oak shelves and curated cellars, Fox was running a criminal enterprise. In a guilty plea entered August 11, 2016, he admitted to fabricating purchase orders for wine he never bought, inflating inventory with phantom stock, and selling wine that didn’t exist to unsuspecting customers.
Between 2010 and 2015 alone, Fox admitted to selling or attempting to sell approximately $20 million in non-existent wine. When real orders were placed with foreign suppliers, he routinely promised 30-day payments he knew Premier Cru couldn’t honor. Instead, he funneled money from new customers to cover old deliveries—classic Ponzi mechanics—while diverting funds to fuel a life of excess.
Fox siphoned money from Premier Cru’s business accounts to pay for personal luxuries, including memberships to private golf clubs, leases on Corvettes, Ferraris, a Maserati, and multiple Mercedes-Benzes. He also transferred cash into accounts under his name and fake aliases. Shockingly, over $900,000 was spent on women he met online, all while customers waited years for undelivered bottles.
The house of cards collapsed when Premier Cru filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. At the time, customers were owed roughly $45 million in undelivered wine. The fallout revealed a trail of deception stretching back to the 1990s, culminating in a single federal charge of wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1343. Fox pleaded guilty to the count, with U.S. Attorney Brian J. Stretch and FBI Special Agent in Charge John F. Bennett leading the case.
Judge Donato called Fox’s operation a “long running empire of deception” at sentencing. In addition to the 78-month prison term, Fox was ordered to serve three years of supervised release. A restitution hearing was scheduled for January 18, 2017, to determine the final amount he must repay. Fox is currently in custody and will begin serving his sentence immediately, leaving behind a trail of empty cellars and broken trust.
Related Federal Cases
- Oxycodone Kingpin G.B. Brown Gets Six Years · Washington
- Heroin & Meth Kingpin Hidalgo-Mendoza Gets 15 Years · Washington
- Fort Myers Drug Kingpin Gets Over Eight Years for Marijuana & Laundering · Colorado
- Sacramento Con Man Gets 4+ Years for $1.1M Tax Heist · California
- SoCal Grifter Gets 5.5 Years for SBA Scam · California
Key Facts
- State: California
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
🔒 Get the grimiest stories delivered weekly. Subscribe free →
Browse More
MORE FEDERAL CRIME NEWS
US NewsUS NewsUS NewsUS News