Wine Arsonist Pleads Guilty

A CALIFORNIA MAN APPEARED IN FEDERAL COURT MONDAY and admitted that he had set the fire that destroyed 6 million bottles of California’s finest wine. Mark Christian Anderson, 61, has been in custody for nearly two years because he has been unable to post a 1/2-million-dollar bond after being charged with starting a devastating fire in October 2005 that resulted in a $200 million to $400 million loss.

Anderson was the operator of a secure warehouse on the grounds of the former Mare Island Naval base in Vallejo, California. He leased the storage space to wineries and wealthy wine collectors as a safe repository for vintage and archival wines. The repository held archival samples as well as some entire vintages from 95 Napa Valley wineries and about 50 private collectors. The loss of entire vintages caused a major upheaval in the world wine market.

wine b spectator

Following the fire, investigators found a gas-soaked rag and a propane igniter nearby and seventeen months later had arrested him. There is speculation that Anderson had been covertly selling off some of the higher-vintage wines and used the arson as a means to cover up his criminal activity.

He was scheduled to be tried today (Tuesday) on the arson charge, but in a suprise move agreed at the last minute to a plea-bargain that will result in a sentence of 15 yrs. and 8 months imprisonment by pleading guilty to arson resulting in injury to two firefighters, interstate transportation of stolen property, mail fraud, use of an alias as part of a mail fraud scheme and income tax evasion.

The Sacramento Bee REPORTS:

Anderson opened Sausalito Cellars on the village’s waterfront in 1998. He admitted Monday that he began embezzling his clients’ products and selling them to premium wine merchants and auction houses …. He also used the aliases Peter Martin and Joseph Throckmorten, he acknowledged in court.

Anderson admitted Monday that, even though he made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling his clients’ wine, he failed to file federal income tax returns for 2001 through 2004. The indictment alleges he had income of $808,952 during that period, on which he owed $290,623 in taxes.

He is still facing embezzlement charges in a California Superior court.

The San Francisco Chronicle has MORE.
Wine Spectator article from October 2005 HERE.