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Indictments Handed Down In High Dollar Wine Theft

There are new developments in a mystery that has Triad connections, and it involves thousands of dollars of stolen Napa Valley wine.

The Triad Business Journal reports two suspects have been accused of stealing expensive wine from the French Laundry restaurant in 2014 that surfaced in North Carolina.

“For more than a year, we had no idea," says Mark Sutter, editor of the Triad Business Journal who has been following the story. "We speculated that maybe a wealthy person in the Triad bought it to stock their own wine cellar, but it turns out that's not what has happened at all.”

He says some of the wine was sold to a local broker.

“They allegedly contacted a company here in the Triad, in High Point specifically, called Wine Liquidators that sells wine or re-sales wine online. In fact, they have an eBay website.”

According to Sutter, an attorney for Wine Liquidators says his client didn't know the wine was stolen and authorities were immediately notified when they found out through media reports.

The indictment for the $300-thousand caper came down last week. Two California men, Davis Kiryakoz and Alfred Georgis, are accused of the theft.

The Journal reports the indictment of Georgis and Kiryakoz indicates that Wine Liquidators bought wine from the two men multiple times in the nearly two years leading up to The French Laundry theft.

Sutter says the two suspects in the case are also accused of committing an earlier wine robbery a few months before at another site in California.

 

*You can follow WFDD's Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news

Keri Brown is a multi-award winning reporter and host at 88.5 WFDD. She has been honored with two regional Edward R. Murrow awards for her stories about coal ash, and was named the 2015 radio reporter of the year by the Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas (RTDNAC).Although she covers a variety of topics, her beats are environmental and education reporting.Keri comes to the Triad from West Virginia Public Broadcasting, where she served as the Chief Bureau Reporter for the Northern Panhandle. She produced stories for the state's Public Television and Radio programs and was honored by the West Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters Association for her feature and enterprise reporting.She also served as an adjunct instructor at Wheeling Jesuit University and Bethany College in West Virginia. She worked with the Center for Educational Technologies in Wheeling, WV, and other NASA centers across the country to develop several stories about the use of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts in the classroom.Keri's journalism career began at WTRF-TV 7 in Wheeling. She worked in several roles at the station, including the head assignment editor. She also was a field producer and assignment manager at WPGH-TV Fox 53 in Pittsburgh.Keri is a graduate of Ohio University. When she's not in the studio or working on a story, she enjoys watching college football with her family, cooking, and traveling.Keri is always looking for another great story idea, so please share them with her. You can follow her on Twitter @kerib_news.

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