Prosecutors in eastern France on Wednesday asked a winemaker to be sentenced to four years in prison for producing and selling fake champagne in an elaborate scam, which was suspended for three years.
Didier Chopin, 56, was also asked to pay a €100,000 fine on charges of fraud and theft of a protected brand name during the trial that began on Tuesday.
Winemakers from the Eisen area produced and sold hundreds of thousands of fake champagne bottles between 2022 and 2023.
The total value of fraud is estimated to be millions of euros.
The Reims Criminal Court prosecution also demanded that the brewer’s wife be sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of €100,000 for fraud and theft of a protected brand name.
The prosecution condemned “a cynical profit logic” and demanded that the couple absolutely prohibit operating a business and exercise any industrial or commercial specialty in the champagne field.
It is also requested that all seized property and all damage of the seized bottles be seized.
The couple’s holding company, Sas Chopin, was asked to pay a fine of 300,000 euros for embezzlement of public funds and abuse of company assets.
The court is expected to announce its verdict on September 2.
“This is a sad conclusion. I made a mistake, I was ruined, I had nothing else,” Chopin told reporters.
Francis Fossier, the winemaker’s lawyer, once advocated a total moratorium on prison sentence. Fossier said his client had been in a prison in Morocco for “seven months”.
Chopin fled to Morocco after employees revealed the Champagne fraud in 2023 and opened a new vegetable farming business there. He was then arrested on charges related to the failure to find the check, convicted and sentenced to jail.
The trial section on the violation of customs – regarding the export of fake champagne outside France – has been adjourned until 3 February 2026.
The brewer also faces another legal process after five former employees accused him of sexual assault.
COR-ETB-MCT/SJW/RL
