![]() This led to the arrest of a 41 year old man in February. Whisky Auction discovered that a number of fakes had been submitted to them, mixed in lots with genuine articles, leading them to tip off London police. Liquor products with race horses and kilted Scotsmen on the label, pretending to be Kentucky bourbon and Scotch whisky (albeit not a particular brand), pop up everywhere from Argentina to Vietnam.įakes have also been appearing in the market for high end bottles. Although few countries have crooks approaching the brazenness of those in China and India, where some gang or another producing copies of major brands are a regular occurrence, knock-offs appear around the world. It was only in 2013 that China saw its first criminal conviction in a phony whisky case.įraudulent whiskeys are actually fairly commonplace around the world. China is rampant with counterfeit whiskeys and other spirits, so much so that Brown-Forman estimates 30% of the liquor sold in China is phony. ![]() India isn’t the only country with a fake booze problem. The phony Scotch was sold to retailers, who passed it on to unknowing consumers as the genuine article. This domestic ersatz Indian whisky was put into empty, used bottles of Chivas Regal, Johnnie Walker, Glenfiddich and Glenlivet, among others, which were then topped with new stoppers and caps imported from China. Most likely this was the ersatz Indian whisky that dominates the domestic market there, which is made by mixing a small proportion of malt and/or grain whisky with a rum-like spirit made from molasses. In 2015, New Dehli police exposed a ring that was passing off Indian Made Foreign Liquor, a blanket term for any alcoholic spirit made in India that isn’t indigenous, as genuine Scotch whisky. While that is of little concern to consumers, most whiskey scams involve counterfeit bottles, and that should concern consumers greatly. Ovaysi could have been planning to use whiskey’s international popularity to entice the unwary into investment scams. Ovaysi intended to do with all of these dubious company registrations is unclear, but what is clear was his intention to create bogus companies with names that looked like divisions of real distilleries and drinks companies. Most laughable of all these phony companies was Chivas Sisters. Tofikuddin Ovaysi, a scammer who has claimed to be a Russian national and the son of former United Spirits chairman Vijay Mallya, set up nearly 100 shell companies using names like which Brown-Forman Corporation (Spirits), Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard Ltd and Balvenie Distillery – William Grant&Sons Ltd. In April 2017, a case of fraudulent activity in the UK came to light that would be laughable, were it not part of a larger and more serious trend. Counterfeit Whiskey Is On The Rise Everywhere. ![]()
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