Could have been but it’s actually more than that: he produced fake champagne on purpose, using wines from Spain, carbonated it and added flavour packs. He then marketed it as champagne and even attempted to export it. Once caught, he fled to Morocco to start a new business.

Real Champagne actually follow a lot of rules besides the protected origin, it’s a blend of wines but it’s not supposed to be carbonated, and flavor balance is to be made only with specific liqueurs.

Surveillance video coverage of that area of the Hague must be very high density (it’s also around where the NATO top meeting took place a few weeks ago), must be difficult to perform this without getting caught