BILLIONAIRE BILL KOCH ROILS THE WINE COLLECTION INDUSTRY BY SPENDING $35 MILLION TO ROOT OUT THE FAKERS WHO SWINDLED HIM FOR $400,000, THIS SUNDAY ON “60 MINUTES”
Con artists who foist fake wine on vulnerable collectors willing to pay huge sums for it have been a little nervous since Bill Koch got swindled. The billionaire member of the famous Koch family says he spent $35 million dollars to find those responsible for the four bottles of wine supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson that cost him $400,000. Koch tells a tale of vintage vengeance on the next edition of 60 MINUTES, Sunday, Oct. 22 (7:30-8:30 PM, ET/7:00-8:00 PM, PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Koch found out the Jefferson bottles were fake when he had his private investigator check their provenance to prepare them for an exhibit. He then checked his entire collection and found he had purchased 400 other fakes over his collecting career.
He says the fakes proliferate because individuals along their chain of possession have a vested interest in not authenticating them. “There is a code of silence in this business,” Koch tells Alfonsi. “Because obviously, the faker doesn’t want anybody to know that he’s making fake wine. The auction house doesn't want to know that, and then, the collector himself generally doesn’t want to know it. Or if he finds out, he wants to find a secret way to dump it and get his money back,” says Koch.
“And that’s why, you see, I was very unique in being the one who said ‘I’m going to stand up for it. I’m going to shine a bright light on these fakers.’”
He put his investigator to work. First he traced the Jefferson bottles to a man in Germany who had claimed to discover them. He later won a judgment against him for $1 million, which he may never see.
Then he traced most of the other fakes to a Los Angeles conman who filled the bottles and affixed expensive labels to them. That man was convicted of fraud.
He sued the auction house that sold one of the Jefferson bottles but was rebuffed because of the statute of limitations. But thanks to his efforts, it’s now easier to sue auction houses.
Koch was on a mission, he says, and the cost was no matter. “I spent over $35 million doing all that. I was a dog…on a bone,” he laughs. “I wasn’t going to give up.”
Alfonsi interviews Koch at his 45,000 square-foot mansion in Palm Beach, Fla., where, in addition to his vast wine collection, he keeps art worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
“60 MINUTES” LISTINGS FOR SUNDAY, OCT. 22, 2017
AMERICAN RADICAL – In his first interview, an FBI undercover tells Scott Pelley how he infiltrated al Qaeda and thwarted potential terror attacks in New York and Toronto. Henry Schuster is the producer.
PELICAN BAY – Oprah Winfrey visits California’s Pelican Bay Prison and the infamous Security Housing Unit that once earned the “supermax” prison the nickname “Skeleton Bay.” She reports on conditions in the “SHU” isolation unit and on new reforms that have nearly emptied it. Rome Hartman is the producer.
CORKSCREWED – When he discovered the wine he paid $400,000 for was not really owned by Thomas Jefferson, billionaire Bill Koch spent $35 million to investigate and confront the fraudsters. Sharyn Alfonsi reports. Sarah Koch is the producer.
IN HIS FIRST INTERVIEW, FBI UNDERCOVER TELLS HOW HE INFILTRATED AL QAEDA AND THWARTED TERROR ATTACKS PLANNED FOR NEW YORK AND TORONTO, THIS SUNDAY ON “60 MINUTES”
The FBI’s Tamer Elnoury Also Tells Scott Pelley How Terrorist Told Him at Ground Zero “That This Place Needs Another 9/11”
In his first interview, the FBI undercover operative who thwarted an al Qaeda attack on a railroad bridge targeting Americans traveling to Toronto reveals how he infiltrated the terrorist group. He also reveals the same attacker was planning to bomb Times Square during a New Year’s Eve celebration. Tamer Elnoury (the name is an alias) tells his story to Scott Pelley in disguise to hide his real identity, on 60 MINUTES Sunday, Oct. 22 (7:30-8:30 PM, ET/7:00-8:00 PM, PT) on the CBS Television Network
Tamer Elnoury works for the FBI’s National Security Covert Operations Unit and is one of only a handful of undercovers who is both Arab and Muslim. No member of the unit has spoken before. He’s written a book, American Radical, which has been cleared by the FBI.
Elnoury, who came with his family from Egypt when he was 4 years old, says he wrote the book and is doing the 60 MINUTES interview because he wants Americans to understand that Muslims like him are risking their lives to defend the United States. “We’re not at war with Islam. We’re at war with radicals. I am a Muslim. I am an American. And I’ve been serving my country for 22 years and counting. And I am appalled at what these animals are doing to my country while desecrating my religion.”
Elnoury is one of the many legends he used. A legend is an elaborately crafted identity the FBI gives its undercover operatives. In this case, they made him a wealthy Arab-American real estate investor who accidently meets his al Qaeda contact on a plane. Seated near Chiheb Esseghaier – a terrorist the FBI had been surveilling – Elnoury clearly looked Middle Eastern, and the terrorist reached out to him in Arabic. The plan worked. “I crafted my legend and made myself recruitable. I wanted him to choose me,” Elnoury tells Pelley. “I wanted him to go to bed that night wondering what he could do to become my friend.”
Elnoury befriended Esseghaier over 10 months, establishing a relationship during which the terrorist twisted the Koran’s meaning to recruit him. The terrorists were thorough in their vetting of him. “‘What do you do? How do you do it? Is it commercial real estate? Is it residential? What do you do when you fly here? What do you do here?’ It sounded like an interrogation,” Elnoury says.
Esseghaier recruited Elnoury into a plot to derail a train with hundreds of passengers coming from New York to Toronto while it crossed a bridge. The investigation took a turn when Esseghaier claimed there was an “American sleeper” – a hidden al Qaeda agent in the United States. Elnoury and the FBI tried to learn the identity of the alleged American sleeper. But shortly after the Boston Marathon bombing, Canadian officials who were part of the joint investigation wanted Esseghaier taken down. He and an accomplice were arrested, tried and convicted, then sentenced to life.
Tamer Elnoury nearly blew his cover during a dramatic meeting at Ground Zero. Esseghaier wanted to visit the site of the 9/11 attack, and while he was there, he put his arm around the FBI undercover and said: “‘Tamer, this place needs another 9/11, and we’re going to give it to ‘em.’ I saw red at that moment. It was the hardest time in my career to stay professional,” he tells Pelley. “Here I am on hallowed ground, and he said that to me. At that very moment, I could feel a pen in the pocket of my jacket. I envisioned stabbing him in the eye and dropping him dead right where he stood.”
IN HER SECOND “60 MINUTES” STORY, OPRAH WINFREY GOES INSIDE ONE OF AMERICA’S MOST NOTORIOUS PRISONS TO REPORT ON USE OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, THIS SUNDAY ON CBS
Oprah Winfrey visits California’s Pelican Bay Prison and the infamous Security Housing Unit (SHU), which has been controversial for years and once earned the “supermax” prison the nickname “Skeleton Bay.” She reports on conditions in the SHU isolation unit that critics say constitutes torture. Winfrey’s report will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, Oct. 22 (7:30-8:30 PM ET/7:00-8:00 PM PT) on the CBS Television Network.
California, which long sent thousands of inmates to solitary confinement, is now on the leading edge of a reform movement aimed at curtailing the practice of limiting prisoners’ human contact – which many say can cause mental illness.
60 MINUTES has reported on the prison’s SHU before. Mike Wallace went there in 1993 to report on conditions at a time when the state touted Pelican Bay as “the wave of the future” in corrections. In another report in 2005, Lesley Stahl examined how gang members in the SHU still managed to communicate and run their murderous enterprises on the streets.
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