The up-and-coming founder of a Sonoma County Direct-To-Trade wine business is a convicted felon & instigator of a possibly illegal wine scheme

The founder of a new Sonoma County Direct-to-Trade business has been convicted of 25 federal felonies, has a highly sanitized LinkedIn profile, and has been involved in a highly irregular — and possibly illegal — wine production and sales operation.

Recently honored by the North Bay Business Journal as one of “Forty Under 40 Ones to Watch,” Petaluma resident Jacob Moynihan, founder of  the Direct-To-Trade wine company Merchant 23,  was a key player in a Multi-Million-Dollar Mortgage Fraud and Money Laundering Scheme  that included leaders and members of  the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, and a San Francisco CPA-Tax preparer.

Moynihan comments

 

A courtesy draft of this article was sent to Mr. Moynihan and asked him for any corrections, comments or other information he felt was appropriate. The following is his response:

 

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• Fraudulent loans more than $10 Million – FBI

• Moynihan’s plea deal + Probation

• Court-ordered restitution would take 1,320 years

• Sanitized LinkedIn profile hides history – “Integrity-driven?”

• Annotated LinkedIn profile graphic fills in blanks

• Potentially illegal Keiser wine showed up for sale on Wine.Com,  Vivino and reviews on Cellar Tracker in 2017

• Moynihan’s wine existed – But the existence of licenses from state and federal governments are equivocal or missing

• Legality of Merchant23’s business model implementation up in the air – Calif ABC

• How the Moynihan/Keiser wine production system worked

• Angelini Trading pulled into Moynihan’s orbit

• Scotto Cellars and Eagle Rock Investments/Vineyards step up as reliable partners

• Keiser Wine COLAs Unobtainable via standard TTB searches

Court documents available for Wine Executive News premium subscribers

• Moynihan Indictment
• Moynihan conviction/judgment
• Moynihan arraignment
• Moynihan arrest warrant

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