© Acker

DRC's collectibility makes it an irresistible target for frauds.

A man behind a $2 million-plus fake wine scheme gets his comeuppance in a French court.

In a case with echoes of the notorious conman Rudy Kurniawan, a Russian man has been jailed and ordered to pay huge fines for selling counterfeit bottles of Burgundy – including some of the world's most expensive – according to French newspaper Le Monde.

On Monday, Aleksandr Iugov appeared before the Dijon Correctional Court and was sentenced to four years in prison, with a minimum non-parole period of two years, for selling fake bottles of prestigious Burgundy estates, including of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Domaine Leroy.

Iugov was then hit with a €150,000 ($165,000) fine for fraudulent use of an appellation. He must also pay more than €550,000 ($605,000) in damages and compensation, including about €300,000 to DRC, who had claimed €200,000 more.

The court was unable to pass judgement on Iugov's two Italian accomplices, as they had already been convicted in Switzerland in March 2015 over the same offenses. The pair are believed to be father and son, with connections to the wine industry.

The case revolves around the sale of some 400 bottles between 2012 and 2014, which were labelled as Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and a smaller amount as Domaine Leroy Musigny. "It's a consideration of the damage to the image of [Burgundy]," DRC's lawyer Marina Cousté said.

The Romanée-Conti vineyard produces between 5000 and 6000 bottles, which are then passed through a network of exclusive distributors and resold for as much as $14,000 a bottle, making it an attractive target for counterfeiters.

During the trial, Iugov, who had already served 18 months in pre-trial detention, had claimed he didn't know the bottles were fake, and denied any link with the Italian defendants.

The Italian accomplices were convicted by a Swiss court and given a 24-month suspended sentence and a $5000 fine, as well as having to pay $440,000 in damages to DRC.

The conviction came at the end of a long combined investigation by European police agencies, that first became public in 2013, when seven people were arrested in connection with some $2.5 million in faked Burgundy. Police were unable to say exactly how many bottles might have been released into the marketplace, however.

Several wine auctions were thrown into disarray over the past year, with bottles being withdrawn after suspicions were raised over their authenticity.