Racehorse-owning £9.3m wine scam businessman Kenneth Gundlach gets 15-year company ban

Kenneth Gundlach ran Bordeaux Fine Wines (BFW) from an office in Lansdowne Road, Croydon, and received more than £10m in dividends from the company, according to the Insolvency Service.

He used the dividends to pay for sports cars, racehorses (including Bunbury Cup winner Field of Dream), private jet hire, and designer clothing and jewellery.  

Mr Gundlach continued to market and sell wine to existing investors at a time when he knew or ought to have known that his company had failed to buy or allocate at least 1,750 cases of wine to fulfil orders that customers had already made, the Insolvency Service said.

The value of the wine that the company failed to supply was about £9.3m.

And investigators from the Insolvency Service said it appeared Mr Gundlach appears to have used BFW’s account for his personal benefit.

Transactions identified in the company bank accounts show payments including £626,148 to bloodstock companies, thought to be for the purchase of race horses, and £553,803 for the purchase and running of cars.

Kenneth Jean Pierre Gundlach has signed a disqualification undertaking for a period of 15 years which means that he cannot promote, manage, or be a director of a limited company until 2030.  

The period of disqualification starts on Monday, February 23.

Paul Titherington, the official receiver in the public interest unit at the Insolvency Service, said: "It was Mr Gundlach and his salesmen who benefited from this company rather than its honest investors.

"He continued to sell wine when he knew he had failed to fulfil earlier sales.  

"Anyone showing such blatant disregard for commercial morality should expect to be banned from running any limited company for a lengthy period time." 

BFW was wound up as a company last February.

Investors and creditors who have not submitted a claim in the proceedings should contact the liquidator’s office by emailing matthew.d.vines@uk.gt.com