Aide to Goldman Sachs Executive Stole His Wine, Prosecutors Say

By Corinne Ramey 

Federal prosecutors Wednesday accused the personal assistant of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive of stealing more than $1.2 million of wine from his boss.

A spokesman for Goldman Sachs identified the executive as David Solomon, the firm's president and co-chief operating officer. The spokesman said the theft of the wine, which includes some of the world's rarest, was discovered in the fall of 2016 and reported to law enforcement at that time.

The indictment charges Nicolas De-Meyer, 40 years old, with interstate transportation of stolen property. He was arrested Tuesday night in Los Angeles and expected to appear Wednesday in federal court there.

A lawyer for Mr. De-Meyer couldn't be reached.

Court papers identify Mr. De-Meyer as the personal assistant "to an individual who collects rare and expensive wine," whom prosecutors call "the victim."

From 2014 through October 2016, Mr. De-Meyer stole hundreds of bottles of wine, the indictment says. Using the alias Mark Miller, Mr. De-Meyer sold the wine to a North Carolina wine dealer he found on the internet, prosecutors said.

The wine in question includes bottles from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, an estate in Burgundy, France, court documents show. These wines are "among the best, most expensive and rarest wines in the world," according to prosecutors.

In October 2016, Mr. De-Meyer stole seven bottles of the wine, which Mr. Solomon had purchased for $133,650, prosecutors said. The wine dealer picked up the bottles from Mr. De-Meyer's Manhattan apartment, then transported some of the bottles to New Jersey and shipped some to California.

Write to Corinne Ramey at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 17, 2018 15:18 ET (20:18 GMT)

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