French Laundry Christmas thief pleads guilty
A 44-year-old man has admitted helping to plot and offload nearly $1m worth of stolen wine, including more than 100 bottles from a Christmas Day heist at California's famed French Laundry restaurant that featured a cache of Domaine de la Romanée Conti.
Davis Kiryakoz, 44, admitted plotting to steal bottles and to getting them out of California along with co-conspirators, the FBI said this week.
The charges relate to a break-in at the famous French Laundry restaurant in Yountville, Napa Valley, on Christmas Day 2014, while the restaurant was closed for renovations.
Some 110 bottles of fine wine, including Screaming Eagle and Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, were taken in the early hours of Christmas morning, with a combined value of $550,000.
Kiryakoz sent 63 bottles of the stolen wine, worth more than $200,000, to a buyer in North Carolina – who promptly returned the bottles to the restaurant when he learned of the theft.
Kiryakoz also admitted conspiring to steal 142 bottles of wine from San Francisco merchant Fine Wines International in March 2013 – worth an additional $290,000 – and 29 bottles from Alexander’s Steakhouse in Cupertino – worth $32,000 – in November 2014.
A federal grand jury indicted Kiryakoz, from Modesto, and a second defendant – Alfred Georgis of Mountain View, against whom charges are still pending – earlier this year.
Kiryakoz, who pleaded guilty to the charges before a federal judge, was freed on bail pending sentencing, which will take place on 28 March.
Editing by Chris Mercer
Related Content:
FBI charges two in French Laundry wine theft case
Two men charged with transporting stolen fine wines...
Napa police find French Laundry’s stolen DRC
Most of the $300,000 of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti and Screaming Eagle wines stolen from The French Laundry restaurant in
The French Laundry heist: stolen DRC wines
See below to find a list of the DRC wines stolen from The French Laundry restaurant's cellars on Christmas Day,
Thieves steal $300,000 of DRC and Screaming Eagle from The French Laundry
Burglars who stole $300,000 worth of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti and Screaming Eagle wines from one of California's best known
Bordeaux wine theft ringleaders get four years in prison
Leading Chablis producer hit by ram-raid wine theft
Man jailed for $2.7m wine theft
A former employee of storage business Legend Cellars has been jailed for six years after stealing US$2.7m of wine from
Hundreds of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti wines stolen at French port
Are higher fine wine prices motivating thieves?
A series of high-profile burglaries in the past two years suggest that wine cellars have joined banks, art galleries and
