TANKED

Wine Entrepreneur Jailed for Using ‘Shark Tank’ Investment to Pay His Mortgage, Bills

After a successful TV pitch for a single-serve wine product, investors flocked to Joseph Falcone’s company.

A New York entrepreneur was sent to jail for two years on Friday after using investors’ money, generated by an appearance on the TV show Shark Tank, to instead pay off his Florida mortgage and trade on the stock market. For most of 2015, Joseph Falcone, from Long Island, reeled in investors to his company, 3G, because of a single-serve wine product showcased on Shark Tank. But he instead diverted $527,064 to his own expenses. As part of his sentence, Falcone was ordered to pay $1.8 million in restitution to seven of 3G’S investors. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud offenses in June 2019. James Martin, founder of the single-serve wine product, said in a statement that Falcone never appeared on Shark Tank and only came on board as a distributor four years after Martin was on the show. He said he severed ties with Falcone in 2016.