Over the last decade, JAY-Z has pushed his champagne brand, Armand de Brignac, commonly known as “Ace of Spades,” into a premier powerhouse.
It’s so coveted that three New York police officers face charges for allegedly stealing nearly $3,000 worth of the beverage at a music festival last year.
According to a Billboard report, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought felony charges against Jonathan Gonzales and Wojciech Czech on Monday for taking bottles of Hov’s expensive champagne from the VIP area at Electric Zoo in September 2022.
Gonzales and Czech face one fourth-degree charge of grand larceny and one fourth-degree charge of criminal possession of stolen property. Gonzales and a third officer, Warren Golden, also received an official misconduct charge.
Based on the prosecutor’s investigation, the three detectives worked narcotics at the festival. They witnessed VIP guests order bottles of Ace of Spades.
After the attendees stepped away briefly, Gonzales reportedly took two bottles — worth $2,900 in total — and retrieved a backpack. Czech then allegedly gave Gonzales the bottles to put in the bag, and Golden turned a blind eye to what had occurred.
Once the crooked detectives left the VIP area and went to a staff-only location, two attendees saw the men take the champagne bottles and reported the incident to a security guard.
“In addition to the alleged theft that occurred, none of the officers working at the event stepped up and stopped this activity,” Bragg said in a statement. “Public confidence in the criminal justice system depends on members of law enforcement acting with the utmost integrity while on duty and following the same rules that apply to everyone else.”
“As a result of the continuing joint investigation with the Internal Affairs Bureau and The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, two NYPD officers were arrested and subsequently suspended from duty today,” the NYPD told Billboard. “The NYPD will continue to pursue the facts in this investigation and initiate further discipline where appropriate.”