[wine] Wine Wrhse fire was arson.

FYI/FYE. The "well traveled man who even tried Sumo wrestling in Japan" sure sounds like Russel "Scooby Doo" Bevin. Cheers, Jim Wine keeper charged in blaze Federal prosecutors allege he set $250 million fire to hide warehouse fraud Matthew Yi, Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writers Tuesday, March 20, 2007 Insurance adjuster Richard Reimche investigates the wareh... (03-20) 04:00 PDT Sacramento -- A Sausalito businessman set fire to a huge warehouse on Mare Island in 2005 to cover up a scheme in which he sold wine that vintners and collectors had paid him to store, federal prosecutors charged Monday as they wrapped up an investigation into a blaze that resulted in wine losses of up to $250 million. Mark Anderson, 58, who subleased space at the Wines Central warehouse, was charged in federal court with 19 felonies, including arson, interstate transportation of fraudulently obtained property, fraud and tax evasion. Anderson, the owner of Sausalito Cellars, was supposed to ship bottles to clients around the world upon request, but much of the wine was missing when the owners requested it, prosecutors say. Anderson was at the warehouse Oct. 12, the day a fire gutted the 244,000-square-foot concrete and steel building, said McGregor Scott, U.S. attorney for California's eastern district. The warehouse contained 6 million bottles of wine owned by 92 wineries and 43 private collectors. Authorities initially pegged the damage at $100 million, but the actual figure is actually nearly $250 million, investigators said Monday. Two firefighters were injured battling the flames. "Mark Anderson put lives at risk to cover his tracks," Scott said. "Due to his greed and deceit, he now faces 19 felony counts and many years in a federal penitentiary." A federal grand jury returned the indictment Thursday, and Anderson was arrested at his Sausalito home Friday, Scott said. Anderson appeared Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero in San Francisco to hear the charges. He did not enter a plea, and no bail was set. He will be transferred to Sacramento because the fire occurred in the eastern district, Scott said. Matthew Bockmon, a federal public defender appointed to represent Anderson, declined comment Monday. But a relative of the defendant said she was surprised by the charges. "It doesn't fit the picture of Mark," said Judy Fraser, Anderson's cousin. "He's a huge part of the community and a very good person, too." Fraser and her husband, former Sausalito Councilman Stephen Fraser, both said Anderson is a well-traveled man of many talents who used to work as an international banker and an attorney and even tried his hand at Sumo wrestling during a stay in Japan. Anderson is a well-known figure in Sausalito, the couple said. He is a fine-arts photographer who wrote columns for the Marin Scope, a newspaper in Sausalito, and served on the city's Arts Commission, Sister City Committee and Parks and Recreation Commission. Federal authorities, however, painted Anderson as a greedy businessman who committed a violent crime to cover his tracks. Pointing to five large photos of the warehouse after the fire, Stephen Martin, an agent in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said, "This is what happens when a motivated arsonist takes something as simple as a flame and he plans a violent attack on people's livelihoods for his personal gain." At the time of the fire, Anderson already faced charges in Marin County Superior Court for allegedly embezzling thousands of cases of wine. The 17-month investigation, which involved local fire and police agencies as well as the Internal Revenue Service, targeted Anderson because the blaze started in the area of the warehouse he had rented and he was seen there on or about the time the fire started, Scott said. But the prosecutor refused to say Monday how the fire started. Jack Krystal, Wines Central's chief executive, said Monday that on the day of the fire, Anderson was moving his stock out of the warehouse because he was evicted for failing to pay his rent. -- ------------------------------ * * Dr. James Lee Ellingson, Adjunct Professor jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 fax 651 XXX XXXX * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *