Ken Chu: Chinaman's Chance or Conman's Scam?

Introduction

Let me introduce you to Ken Chu. Or so he calls himself. And I think it is definitely important to make clear that we are not talking about China's famous leisure guru Ken Chu, as "leisure" Ken is both younger and better dressed. No "our" Ken's appearance is better described by words like "dated" and "sleazy".

The chance

But it is not his looks that you should worry about, when dealing with Ken. What you should be worried about is his behavior. Ken is from China and/or Hongkong and he promises you golden mountains. What he does? He reaches out to distillers and promises them the world.

It has been brought to our attention that Ken has been contacting distillers around the world, while presenting himself as a business man and investor. An investor with a golden opportunity for the distillery that he reaches out to! He promises to take over the distillery in question and help make it big. Like really big!

One location is supposed to become his global hub for American whiskey production. Another one will do Gin and Vodka. Yet another distillery will be bought and upgraded to a global rum powerhouse. Of course there will also be Tequila and Baijiu distilleries in his global empire. The Tequila distillery supposedly already got a USD 12 million investment, as it needed new agave ovens.

Sounds amazing, right? What a chance, if this guy reaches out to you! Heck, it even gets better: not only will Ken turn your distillery into a global entity, a force to be reckoned with, but he might even buy you iStills to achieve that! And yes, that's how we got notified.

The conman

Earlier this year we were contacted by a Colorado-based craft distiller. He wanted to know about his iStill. Ken Chu had reached out to him and told him he had bought an iStill 5000 for them and that it was being shipped already. The distiller reached out, because they had to know about sizes and power and cooling requirements. I had to inform him that Ken hadn't ordered him an iStill 5000, nor had he (or would he ever) pay for any iStill.

Ken was supposed to visit this distillery coming Friday. But "coming Friday" became like a running joke, as it was always Friday one week later, the next one, as he was too busy to visit on the originally intended Friday. Yet the visit never materialized and there was always another excuse or explanation, we were informed.

Ken Chu was also supposed to visit us and he even tried to book a course at the iStill University for all the craft distilleries that he was "acquiring". He had been promising some of his ... victims? ... targets? ... not sure what the correct word is, here, iStills, so that apparently made sense or added to his story. Of course he never paid us, or booked a course. With Ken it is all talk and no play.

His reach

So far we have established that Ken has made promises to a craft distillery from Windsor, Colorado. If I got the story - that they told me - right, they would become the Gin and Vodka or American Whiskey Hub. There was another distillery on the USA West Coast that was also in the race of becoming either Ken's Gin and Vodka or his American Whiskey production facility. They were promised an iStill as well.

The Rum was supposed to be produced by a craft distiller that already produces rum in the Raleigh-Durham region. Baijiu, a Chines Rice Brandy, was to be produced by a big Brewery called "Gold Mountain Brewery", from Guangzhou, China, that Ken Chu claimed he already owned.

What we uncovered

As our name was used to lure at least some craft distilleries into believing the prince on the white horse had arrived, we did some digging. This is what we discovered:

• Ken Chu promises various craft distilleries that he will take them over and invest in 'm, yet he apparently never does;
• Ken Chu feels not bound by contracts and promises people money that he does not pay;
• Ken Chu and his Gold Mountain Brewery cannot be found at the Chinese or Hongkong Chambers of Commerce;
• Ken and Gold Mountain Brewery's address is located on the 14th floor of an office building in Guangzhou - quite an odd location for a big brewery;
• No Tequila manufacturer that we (or our Mexican contacts) know of has been taken over or seen a USD 12M Chinese investment in new agave ovens;
• 12M is way too big an investment for any size of agave cooking.

Our warning

We don't understand (yet) what Ken's play is. As far as we understand it, so far he hasn't taken money from the distilleries he reaches out to. Why does he do what he does? What's in it for him? Maybe we are missing an obvious point here, but then again: we are not versed in conman practices. But if anyone has any idea, please let us know!

We are calling a scam on this, as Kenny-boy is selling things he cannot or does not deliver on to the extent that his actions are harmful to a number of craft distillers. And even though these distillers are not iStill customers, I don't want any distiller to get harmed by believing in and preparing for fairy tales that do not come true. Ken probably won't invest in your company. He for sure cannot purchase iStills anymore, as we do not do business with scam artists.

Also: on a next round of new scams with other craft distillers ... he might not even be called Ken Chu anymore, so be aware of that. But if you remember the words "dated" and "sleazy", and if he sounds too good to be true, well, then it probably is him. And it probably is too good to be true.