French Winemaker Arrested in Morocco Amid Champagne Fraud Investigation

Fleeing the justice of his country, the Champagne winemaker Didier Chopin had settled in Morocco in September 2023. He created Les Champs sans frontières, a production and export company for fruits and vegetables. But things did not go as planned. He will be arrested in June 2024 and then incarcerated in Morocco. He is accused of having issued checks without provision. Facts assimilated to fraud in Moroccan law. He could face a prison sentence of 1 to 5 years.

On June 24, his lawyer Francis Fossier was surprised to find him absent from the Éperna gendarmerie brigade. He was expected there in the context of several other cases. He would have produced in Billy-sur-Aisne, near Soissons, 1.5 million bottles of fake champagne from wines from Ardèche and Spain and carbon dioxide. He is also the subject of five complaints, including from former employees, for alleged acts of rape, harassment and sexual assault. Facts he has always denied.

It was not until last June 27 that his lawyer learned from L’Union that he had been arrested and imprisoned in Morocco. Hence his absence at the gendarmerie. Information confirmed by the French embassy in Rabat and the French justice system. In Morocco, his company did not produce or export a single vegetable, says a local source. If Didier Chopin was able to rent a warehouse in Skhirat, about thirty kilometers from Rabat, he would never have managed to obtain approval from the Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture. "I went to see him, I saw an office, hangars with equipment but no employees," says Fossier.

The winemaker from Champlat-et-Boujacourt also took an interest in the catering industry by investing in the Daily B, a restaurant located on the very chic marina of Rabat-Salé. But his debts accumulated whether in Morocco or in France, in particular due to his difficult relationship with his family who remained in France. These six French companies of Didier Chopin show a total liabilities of 16 million euros and are liquidated one by one from February to April 2024. "He stood surety for everything, he will be ruined," predicts Francis Fossier. Chopin is also suspected of fraudulent bankruptcy. According to several employees, he would have sold equipment from his operation and sent part of it to Morocco following the revelation of the fake champagne scandal last August. Reims prosecutor François Schneider confirms "suspicions of fraudulent bankruptcy". He is awaiting his release. "We are waiting for him to get out and we will summon him again," the magistrate said.