Federal brokers investigating iconic wine retailer Sherry-Lehmann spent practically two days at an workplace advanced north of New York City this week — hauling off objects from a constructing the place it’s believed that the retailer saved prospects’ uncommon and costly wines, The Post has realized.
About 20 brokers from the FBI and the US Postal Inspection Service arrived at Blue Hill Plaza in Pearl River, NY at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday with a search warrant in hand and stayed nicely into the subsequent day, sources inform The Post.
“They have been pulling stuff out of the constructing and had at the very least one truck with them,” a supply with information of the state of affairs stated.
The brokers additionally arrange a tent outdoors constructing #2, the smaller of the 2 properties on the advanced, sources stated.
The Pearl River raid occurred on the identical day that legislation enforcement brokers have been scouring Sherry-Lehmann’s Park Avenue retailer, carrying containers out of the shop and inserting them right into a white van parked outdoors the doorway, as The Post reported.
A spokesman for the USPIS, Nick Moore, confirmed that the 2 actions have been a part of the broader investigation of Sherry-Lehmann.
“We examine legal issues with a nexus to the U. S. Mail, and implement over 200 federal statutes,” Moore stated in an e-mail.
Sherry-Lehmann’s prospects have been complaining for greater than a yr about wine they purchased that was by no means delivered. Some prospects stated they believed the retailer’s sister firm, Wine Caves, had eliminated their prize booze from storage and bought it to different prospects, in keeping with a New York Times report.
Wine Caves had pitched long-term storage companies for Sherry-Lehmann prospects who had extra wine than they’ll accommodate in their very own cellars or who have been in search of a protected place for his or her dear vintages.
Former staff of Sherry-Lehmann have instructed The Post that the retailer’s house owners, Kris Green and Shyda Gilmer, moved Wine Caves from a warehouse in Jamaica, Queens to Blue Hill Plaza.
The transfer occurred a yr in the past and was not identified to the New York State Liquor Authority, which oversees and licenses such companies, or to the shoppers who allege that their wine was moved with out their permission, together with to different prospects.
A spokesman for the SLA instructed The Post that Wine Caves’ present license expires on the finish of this yr and is related to the Queens deal with.
Blue Hill Plaza is owned by Glorious Sun, a Hong Kong-based actual property agency which additionally owns the Park Avenue constructing during which Sherry-Lehmann’s retailer is situated.
The actual property agency didn’t instantly reply to a question.
