UK Man Gets 10 Years in Prison for $97 Million Wine Loan Scam

A British man was sentenced in Brooklyn, New York, to 10 years in prison for swindling investors out of $97 million tied to a collection of extremely rare and valuable wines that didn’t exist.

James Wellesley, 59, was sentenced Monday for what US District Judge Pamela Chen called a “brazen crime.” He pleaded guilty in October to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The prison term was less than the 12 1/2 years requested by federal prosecutors.

Between June 2017 to February 2019, Wellesley and co-defendant Stephen Burton operated a Ponzi scheme, according to prosecutors. The two were ...