Australian Wine Index review: boiler room wine investment scam 416

AWI called me up recently to give 2 options (1) pay a fee and they will sell my wines (2) take back all my wines to comsume myself.

This is their way of pushing the clients way out after getting the money. When I sound unhappy and disagreed on this arrangement, the broker also raised his voice to challenge me. ANYBODY WHO DOES CUSTOMER FRONTING KNOWS THIS IS ABSOLUTELY WRONG! What I got in the end is I will be billed soon. THE NEW AWI IS GANGSTER!

AWI IS GANGSTER!

AWI YOU ARE GANGSTER, HOOLIGAN!

Just came back from TBW sales pitch.
It's an invisible ponzi scheme that can go wrong, just like sunshine empire few years ago.
Put in money, tell you the physical wine is there in warehouse, but in reality you are only given a cert. You can go to the warehouse to see it. 5K investment startup with 18% projected returns in 6 months. I asked for their certs, they produced an Acra cert dating 13/02/2014. They said the shop has been here since 2003, the manager said 1996.
Manager guy was someone from liverpool, showed me the plane ticket that he has come from KL this morning.
Impressive shop front in raffles quay north tower, but the managers and etc are all wearing marks and spencer suits. Really?
My impression of really wealthy people or doing well, are people wearing tailored suits.
I asked them, why do you need us, since you can just buy all the wine and sell directly without us middle man. And what are the risks? No risks. Hard selling at the end, saying you must buy in today, cause tomorrow they will have enough investors. 100/broker, at the moment the broker has 98. I did get my promised 150 takashimaya voucher and a bottle of wine, but I still think it is a scam.
3-4 weeks to receive their wine insurance from AXA, and a storage cert in CWT. 3-4 weeks is enough for many things to go wrong. I quoted the sunshine empire ### to them, they said 2-3 years to pull out, why do you worry? You can see returns in 6 months.
They also have referall schemes that pay you around 900 SGD/ 2000RM for referring investors who invest. 900 bucks out of the 5K your friend is going to put in, then 4.1k for the wines? Really?

Sorry if it is not coherent. But I personally think it is too good to be true. SCAM ALERT.

Just to add,

when I ask them for their insurance for their shop space, they said AXA is emailing them now, receive in 5 mins.
That's when the guy started to show his passport, namecard, plane ticket etc. Saying how can all these be fake?
If you don't believe in my products, do not insult my company and what I do. I have been very happy in this company for the past 12 years.

Then he said to his colleague rose(lady who explained to me from Mexico), please take this man out. He is not suitable for this type of investment. Bye.
Verdict? Go for the 150 takashimaya voucher, but don't invest.

I spoke to a guy name Tom earlier. If I were to pull out my wine, I will have to pay a fee of S$2800. This is daylight robbery.
Did anyone withdraw your wine?

Did anyone approached by ITRA (International Timeshare Refund Action Group)? They claim they will be able to help AWI customer to claim back the investment, but they will charge us 40% of the claim back amount. Did anyone attend their consultation session?

Thank you to all those who messaged me privately. I am grateful for the opportunity to help you have your issues resolved. For those of you who have not already messaged me, take a moment to send me a message and I will contact you with all the relevant information.. Do not simply believe everything you read online.. Take the time to look after your own interests.

There is no proof for any of these bogus claims. If it is not already obvious anyone that posts here becomes a target for legal advisors to make a buck, or even worse, making yourself a target for a real scam by having your personal details posted here.

TBW = "The Bottled WOLF!"
Agreed with TBWScam, it is a big ponzi scheme, DO BEWARE!
There is "ONE" story told to the new "potential client", and "ANOTHER" story being told to the existing clients.
To the "NEW" they showed their rich history, to the "OLD" they disassociated their TAINTED past!
THINK TWICE!

WINEGU, be more transparent in trying to say you want to help. Why are you helping? What is your motive?

TBW = "The Bottled WOLF!"
Agree with TBWScam, DO BEWARE!
That is one story being told to the new potential clients and another to the old existing clients. There are too much contradictions, as I can see new clients are being mislead on the long history they have and on the other hand disassociated themselves from their tainted past with the old clients!

swat13477 - I was approached by them too. When I question them in email why are there so many bad online news about them, they simply no replying and try to keep calling you. Step away, it is another scam.

TBW looks more like THE BOTTLED WOLF
It just do not make sense when different story are told to different parties...New clients are told of the long history they have while old clients are being told they are not related to their tainted past...

Story of my visit to new AWI dated 08 Jul 2014
- honor and obligated to old AWI commitments
- contract signed with old AWI is a valid contract
- about jun/jul 2013 new AWI took over
- having office in Malaysia and Indonesia currently
- planning for more offices to be open elsewhere and this is to facilitate for the large amount of wines stored in the warehouse to be sold faster
- new AWI saved all existing clients' wines by paying up debts of old AWI with Menlo (saying not a strong case to dispute them consent was not seek before moving from Menlo -> CWT)
- spent more than 1million for logistic to move all wines
- "trading agreement entry fee" is required for them to start selling wines and valid for 12 months - after payment is made, wines will start to be sold within 2 weeks of receipt of payment - upon expiry of 12 months, new AWI will make an offer to purchase any balance of the client's portfolio not sold
- purchase price shall be portfolio reserve value (don't know what is reserve value) as of the date of the ending of trading agreement
- if don't agree to this, the other way is draw out for own consumption and new AWI will bill for storage + insurance + custom tax
- if still don't agree, can choose to sue new AWI

Now we see the whole story by linking up what TBWScam story and 7 years victim...This is how the entire ponzi scheme work taking in new client $ to return to the old client while still sucking their old clients...DO THINK TWICE!

Wasted my trip down to their office AGAIN this wk...blood boiling. If i dun get back my money I will make sure i tell all their potential new investors what a load of crap they are ... see who more xiong KN****B ... pardon me

Went down to their office again this wk...waste my bloody time again with some crap agreement. Blood boiling. I make sure they no business until i get what i want. see who more xiong...

If TBW want to keep delaying the issue and not rtn my $, i will visit them in their office daily. See who more xiong...

I am transparent to anyone that contacts me, as I mentioned before, this is not the place.

I agree with owenzq on this... the old client (AWI) can sell his wine to the new client (TBW) but anyone who has an investment with a company that no longer exists, needs to share in the cost of selling wine they have in storage. Pay to get your wines released, or let TBW sell it for you to the new client. In the end, it will be sold for distribution to retail market in Asia, or sold at auction. There are many wine bars and clubs, hotels and catering service that will be more than excited to buy your wine. You simply need to decide if you want TBW to sell it for you, or take it out of storage and drink or sell it yourself.

WINEGU, u r such a bull ### fellow & I know u r fr AWI or TBW.

1. First of all AWI still exist even if name is changed, the biz reg no. still the same.
2. If u say AWI no longer exist, then how can TBW move our wine fr Menlo to CWT, that's theft as no consent was made fr the clients.
3. If u say new AWI/TBW save our wine. In what ways? We can settle the storage which old AWI owe Menlo ourselves, which is just half a yr or sold. U guys moved our wine so that u can charge us storage fee fr the 4th yr to now, even though u only paid half a yr or so storage fee to bill our wine out. That's the very reason u want to move our wine.
4. Wat retail marketing r u referring to? This another big bull ###! My group has a huge portfolio & we have approach my retails & restaurants, they offer us v low buy back price. Why? The reason is v simple, they can to to the supply & purchase those wine directly at a v low price why buy high fr us. AWI had sold us the wine at high price when they bought it cheaply, this is all but a SCAM!

1. New business was created, with new directors, and a new business number.
2. The wine in storage was released with payment of over-due storage fees. You should be thankful that your wine was not lost.
3. There is a major retail program in progress, a wine auction shortly, and other exit strategies in place for new and existing clients from both firms.
4. If you bought wine you knew nothing about, including its actual value, then who is to blame? Lucky for you I believe this is not the case. My research tells me that there are many wines in AWI clients portfolio's that can make their owner a good profit. If you kindly disclose your portfolio details I will gladly provide you with a quote for purchase of your wine... or as previously mentioned, you can take it home and drink it, or sell it privately.
Call me what you like. Your frustration is not going to solve your problem. If you would like my help, you need to start to act and think rationally my friend.

This is my encounter w AWI:

Firstly, I started investing with AWI in early 2005 for about $6, 000 believing that the wine will appreciate in value and they stated that only 5% commission will be charged on the sales of wine after the 3 yrs when the free storage end.

They keep coming back to me to buy more wine telling me that I need to have a good portfolio to fetch a higher profit when I sell my wine as a collection. But I stop investing when they keep giving excuses to trade off my wine in 2008 even though their valuation report shows that my wine had appreciated and by that time the broker who serves my account had changed more than 5 times. Later I also found out that it wasn’t true that I need to have a collection in order to sell it in auction. To my horror at the later stage when my wine is almost coming to 10 years, then I found out that actually most Australian wine don’t last more than 10 or 15 yrs except for label like Penfolds but yet they keep telling me that the wine is good for drinking even after 15 yrs.

At the later part of the year 2010, they organized an auction in Shanghai and invited me to participate but with a condition to purchase more wine in order to have priority access to the auction. I question them in term of how to guarantee success on the auction if I purchase more wines and they agreed to buy back the R Wines if the auction wasn’t successful.

In doubt, I did more research and found a warning issued by Australian Securities and Investments Commission(ASIC) on 15 Mar 2000, that their director Mr. Jeremy Albert Kasler was involved in unlicensed timeshare business. I showed it to the trading manager, Mr. Edward Davison at that time who claimed to be a former employee of Christie’s Wine Auction House and an expert in wine trading. He claimed that Mr. Kasler wasn’t aware that a license is needed at that time and then offered me a place in the Shanghai auction with no additional condition. So coincidentally, the company in Australia was deregistered in Nov 2010 and Mr. Kasler later left AWI, leaving Mr. Andrew Bassett in-charged.

In the end, they only shipped one label of my wine(2002 Howard Park) to Shanghai auction and only 1 auction was run, instead of the promised 6 auctions. The whole event was a disaster with only about 40%success sales and my wine wasn’t sold, yet I still need to pay for the shipment and storage there. As suspected, Mr. Edward also over stated his qualification as he didn’t work for Christie’s Auction but only attended the course there.

Later another trading manager, Mr. David Boulton took over but also keep finding excuses and not able to trade off my wines even when I went down to AWI office many times between 2011 to 2012. There was no more broker assigned to my account and they started charging storage fee in Nov 2011.

In early 2013 when I went down to AWI office and they were preparing to shift to new office and David Boulton had left. I was attended by another broker Mr. Jack Brown who told me that they have this priority scheme for client who urgently need to trade off their wine.This scheme requires client to pay a minimum of $3, 000 or 10% of my wine portfolio value for a membership program with Christe’s Auction House sponsored by Penfolds. I subsequently went to talk to the trading manager, Mr. David Campbell on a separate appointment and made my stand on not to put in more money and eventually Mr. David agreed to sell my wine without the need to put in more money.

Later, he assigned a guy name Gallen to look into my account but he doesn’t have any knowledge in wine, so in the end no sale was made. Someone in the forum checked with Christie’s Auction and found that there was no such partnership. I tried to check with Mr. David again but he was on long MC and I have to talk to Mr. Jack again, but this time there was no mentioning of Christie’s Auction, yet the same priority scheme was presented.

U guys and gals can discern for urself what kinf of company is this ...

WINEGU, u agree this is a big PONZI scheme, STOP twisting the facts, anybody can see what is happening...
For everybody own interest, take a look at what they are doing> the attitude of the staff ("whenever they did not get what they want they turn nasty and start hurling abuse and resorting to hard selling, fear tactics") to force clients to commit, the story they are citing (too many inconsistent points - excuses after excuses), and the facts that are presented (No real positive cases but countless of unresolved cases with negative outcome). They are just ###ting and scamming...

This is my encounter w AWI (Part 2):
In year 2010, they organized an auction in Shanghai and invited me to participate but w a condition to purchase more wine in order to have priority access to the auction. I asked them in term of how to guarantee success for the auction if I purchase more wines and they agreed to buy back the R Wines if the auction wasn’t successful.

In doubt, I did more research and found a warning issued by Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) on 15 Mar 2000, that their director Mr. Jeremy Albert Kasler was involved in unlicensed timeshare business. I showed it to the trading manager, Mr.Edward Davidson at that time who claimed to be a former employee of Christie’s Wine Auction House and an expert in wine trading. He claimed that Mr. Kasler wasn’t aware that a license is needed at that time and then offered me a place in the Shanghai auction with no additional condition. So coincidentally, the company in Australia was deregistered in Nov 2010 and Mr. Kasler later left AWI, leaving Mr. Andrew Bassett in-charged.

This is my encounter w AWI (Part 2):

At the later part of the year 2010, they organized an auction in Shanghai and invited me to participate but with a condition to purchase more wine in order to have priority access to the auction. I question them in term of how to guarantee success for the auction if I purchase more wines and they agreed to buy back the R Wines if the auction wasn’t successful.

In doubt, I did more research and found a warning issued by Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) on 15 Mar 2000, that their director Mr. Jeremy Albert Kasler was involved in unlicensed timeshare business. I showed it to the trading manager, Mr.Edward Davidson at that time who claimed to be a former employee of Christie’s Wine Auction House and an expert in wine trading. He claimed that Mr. Kasler wasn’t aware that a license is needed at that time and then offered me a place in the Shanghai auction with no additional condition. So coincidentally, the company in Australia was deregistered in Nov 2010 and Mr. Kasler later left AWI, leaving Mr. Andrew Bassett in-charged.

In the end, they only shipped one label of my wine(2002 Howard Park) to Shanghai auction and only 1 auction was run, instead of the promised 6 auctions. The whole event was a disaster with only about 40% success sales and my wine wasn’t sold, yet I still need to pay for the shipment and storage there. As suspected, Mr. Edward also over stated his qualification as he didn’t work for Christie’s Auction but only attended the course there. Later another trading manager, Mr. David Boulton took over but also keep finding excuses and not able to trade off my wines even when I went down to AWI office many times between 2011 to 2012. By then, there was no longer any broker assigned to my account and they started charging storage fee in Nov 2011.

This is my encounter w AWI (Part 2):

Their Shanghai Auction was a failure, only 1 auction was organised instead of the promised 6 auctions with less than 40% success sales and my wine was not sold, yet I still need to pay for the shipment and storage there. As suspected, Mr. Edward Davidson also over stated his qualification as he did not work for Christie’s Auction but only attended the course there. Later another trading manager, Mr. David Boulton took over but also keep finding excuses and not able to trade off my wines even when I went down to AWI office many times between 2011 to 2012. By then, there was no longer any broker assigned to my account and they started charging storage fee in Nov 2011.

This is turning into a long winded post about details that are not true. The above "story" is just that. If you need clarification about any of these details, please message me and I will inform you on the truth.

Wat I have wrote are all truth, not story. I have the proof, emails, letter from Australia Commission, invoice, contract, etc. All is enough to proof that AWI is operating a SCAM business. Do not believe in wat they say, trust me u will just end up regretting if u invest in their so call "truth".

Ok.. but AWI is not longer in business. They were purchased by TBW Corp. Everything you say may be all truth, but this does not change the fact that AWI is no longer an operating company. If you lost money with AWI and need help selling your wine, TBW will do this for you.

WINEGU, u r the greatest joker I have ever met. Even if is a buy over, all contract r still honored & whoever had bought over AWI should have checked wat is the company's liability. I don't think ur boss Mr Guillianno is a fool. Please talk some logic & not nonsense. So when SingTel bought over NCS, did existing customer need to pay again to have their service contract maintained? When StarHub bought over CableVision, did existing customer need to pay again to have their service continued? It will be a joke if that kind of things happen. U r nothing but full of ###!

fact: AWI was a non-registered investment. fact: No contracts need to be honored from AWI, that company is no longer. fact: many AWI clients have made arrangements for TBW to sell their wines, and have already done so. fact: your service contract with AWI is not valid. You need to have one with TBW or you will lose your wine currently in unpaid storage, or you can pay the storage fees and keep you wine there, or withdraw your wine after paying duty, taxes, and fees. I do not work for them. I do however buy wine to add to my private collection and own a wholesale distribution business for wine and spirits. Would you like a quote? Message me with your inventory and I will provide you with a quote for purchase. I can help you if you let me do so.

AWI Exposed! It is obvious that you are not willing to receive any help, and prefer to post here than have results for your situation.
If you decide to allow me to quote you on a price to purchase your wine portfolio, I will be glad to give you an evaluation. Message me for details.

From what we can see basically TBW is just a change in name but not the substance. This is just another sham TBW is trying to pull off to entice, deceit and scam new and existing clients.

TBW is making great returns for its investors.. However, if you believe otherwise, then you are entitled to your own opinion owenzq .. stick to your unit trusts and property investments. They are regulated. With regulated returns. Blessings to you. Wine Investment is not for everyone.

WINEGU, if you have nothing to hide, why can't you spell out what you can do openly? Say it.

WINEGU, if you have nothing to hide, why not openly say what you can do? Say it.

Dear all,

if you have been following this entire saga, this is part 2 of my story.
2 people have called me in the past 2 days. 1, a telemarketer who asked me if I received my taka voucher as promised. I said yes.
Today, another caller called me. Sounded foreigner, so I would assume they would be one of those brokers they were talking about.
She asked, Mr C, will you be coming down today for your appointment? Which I told her, I already went on Monday. And then she hung up. This lady sounded like my broker who explained wine investment to me. Mexican lady called Rose. Of course, I have no way of verifying. 98/100 investors, 2 days later she is still looking for her 2 investors. Really?

So back to the incident on Monday. The 2 questions I asked were, what are the risks involved? And, why do you need us investors when you can buy low, and sell high yourselves when they all mature. Rose passed me to the manager, some guy from liverpool, please refer to my other post. Manager said, what risks? There are no risks involved. What could happen to your wine? Fire? Flood? Spoilage? These are all covered by AXA insurance. Why do we need you investors? Because just like everybody else, we also want to make money from you. Input sly grin here.

After this, he asked, so what is stopping you from investing in this wine? Is it the package? Is it the price?
I said no, not the wine, not the package, and certainly not the price. Then he said, do you trust in CWT? Do you trust in TBW? If yes, so what is the problem?'
I said, what if the shop front is a scam? An elaborate scam, to cheat lavishly at unknowing sheep.
He said, Mr C, what can I do to help us convince you? So I asked for the business registration. Which showed it had 10million, registered on 13/2/2014.
I was still unconvinced, so I asked him for the insurance of the place that the company was rented in. I was told by some friends that every company probably has insurance for the place they rented in. Manager went away, and came back 2 mins later, saying that he has called the insurance company, and they will fax it over in 5 mins. This was when everything changed.

Now he said, 'Mr C, we want to help you, but what is really holding you back?'
I just told him 'I am not sure if this is a scam'.
He said, 'Look, If we wanted to scam your money, would we rent such an expensive office in the CBD? Would we put 10million dollars to register our company? And this is Singapore man, you know how strict your laws are?' I said, 'Even if there are strict laws, there are still loopholes that you guys can take advantage of.'
This was when this manager guy got agitated and aggressive and said, 'Look, this is my name card. If I wanted to scam your money, would I bother printing a name card with my real name on it? No wait. This is my passport. If I wanted to scam your money, would I show you my passport? Oh a passport can even be fake. Look, this is my plane ticket from KL this morning. I flew in this morning just to see you today. See our president's picture on the wall? He is seated over there. Do you think he is fake too? He also flew in this week just for this. But no, even a person can be fake. I don't know how to help you. Rose, can you please send Mr C out? He is obviously not suitable for this type of investment.'
From here he turned to me, 'I am sorry Mr C, but wine investment is not for everyone'.

This exact words winegu mentions at the end of his sentence.
Could they be the same person?
Is it just one of their mantras to convince themselves and their investors? What if these brokers were scammed themselves, and suffer a deeper psychology problem. They have to scam other people, or risk losing their money totally. I don't know. All these are conspiracy theories.
This is my experience, and I am even willing to meet up with anyone face to face to share my experience at TBW.
Please, if you have made the appointment to go, please go. Go get your 150 takashimaya voucher and free cheap wine. I checked, the wine costs around 7-14AUD.
If you are convinced then, make your investment and pray to whoever you believe in. If you are convinced that it is a scam, say no and walk out with your 150 taka voucher. Remember, they send you the invitation with your name, their address, and the promised value of vouchers. If they do not keep that promise, I think it can go under false advertisement? And, if you guys still haven't realise, in Singapore at least, PDPA law is active since July. These telemarketers can get into trouble just for calling you I think.