World’s most expensive cocktail covers $32m casino heist

The Guinness World Record’s most expensive cocktail, priced AU$12,500, was technically never sold at all, but allegedly used to cover a AU$32m casino heist.

The Winston set a new Guinness World Record in 2013 for the world’s most expensive cocktail

In February 2013, The Winston – made from Cognac Croizet 1858 Cuvee Leonie, Grand Marnier Quintessence, Chartreuse Vieillissement Exceptionnellement Prolonge and a dash of Angostura Bitters – was bought at Crown Casino’s Club 23 in Melbourne by New Zealand businessman James Manning.

However, according to reports by the Sydney Morning Herald, an investigation by Fairfax Media revealed the purchase was faked in order to cover up at AU$32m heist allegedly involving Manning, that had been uncovered in the casino the previous day.

The news site reported Manning had been enjoying an eight-hand AU$32m winning streak, which raised alarm bells with casino security who decided to take a closer look.

“We could not believe what he had won and some of the bets he placed were very, very suspicious,” said a former Crown executive. “Those eight hands, in particular – he bet against the odds and won, so one of our surveillance guys decided to take a closer look.”

Security breach

After analysing the CCTV footage of the game, a surveillance expert realised that Crown’s cameras in the VIP room had been breached and someone had been giving signals to Manning at the table, who turned out to be the VIP services manager who invited Manning to the casino.

A security guard evicted Manning from his luxury villa at Crown Towers in the middle of the night, but Crown management decided not to press charges as most of the AU$32m winnings had not yet been transferred out of the casino.

However, the casino’s PR department had already revealed that Manning would be buying the world-record cocktail the next day and even had guests lined up to witness the transaction in order for it become a Guinness World Record.

“Having James Manning done for a gambling heist just before the event was not in the script,” a former member of Crown’s PR team told the news site. “We had the Cognac, we had the event organised, we just didn’t have a buyer. We were in an awful bind.”

Two Crown executives, vice president of VIP services, Ishan Ratnam, and the chief operating officer of Crown Hotels, Peter Crinis, approached a well-known, regular visitor at Crown Towers, called Giang Nguyen, a financial backer of the Geelong Football Club.

Nguyen apparently agreed to sign for The Winston cocktail at Club 23 in order to satisfy the Guinness World Record judges, provided the money would be repaid to him by Crown at a later date.

Fairfax Media said it received no responses from the parties involved, and according to the Guiness World Records website Club 23 still holds the title for the most expensive drink ever sold.