A pair of California men who allegedly made a very un-merry Christmas for the Napa Valley’s famed French Laundry restaurant by stealing 76 bottles of rare and expensive wines have been indicted on money laundering and transportation of stolen goods charges.
Alfred Georgis of Mountain View and Davis Kiryakoz of Modesto were arrested by federal agents some 16 months after they were said to have broken into Thomas Keller’s Michelin-starred restaurant on Christmas Day, 2014, when the restaurant was closed for renovations and its alarm was turned off.
Federal investigators not only fingered the dynamic duo for the French Laundry burglary but also for the thefts of high-end wines from a San Francisco wine shop and Silicon Valley steakhouse. Many of the more than 250 stolen wines, which had a total value of some $300,000, were transported to North Carolina and sold to a local collector, who reportedly paid the pair $57,000 in cashier’s checks and wire transfers, all under the $10,000 limit that would trigger scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Treasury.
Most of the French Laundry wines, which included multiple bottles from such stellar producers as Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Screaming Eagle, were recovered and sent back to the restaurant. On the other hand, the San Francisco and Silicon Valley businesses weren’t so lucky.
If convicted, Georgis and Kiryakoz could face sentences of up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines, meaning their Christmases will not be very bright for quite awhile.