Federal agents investigating iconic wine retailer Sherry-Lehmann spent nearly two days at an office complex north of Latest York City this week — hauling off items from a constructing where it’s believed that the retailer stored customers’ rare and expensive wines, The Post has learned.
About 20 agents 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 well into the following day, sources tell The Post.
“They were pulling stuff out of the constructing and had at the very least one truck with them,” a source with knowledge of the situation said.
The agents also arrange a tent outside constructing #2, the smaller of the 2 properties on the complex, sources said.
The Pearl River raid occurred on the identical day that law enforcement agents were scouring Sherry-Lehmann’s Park Avenue store, carrying boxes out of the shop and placing them right into a white van parked outside the doorway, as The Post reported.
A spokesman for the USPIS, Nick Moore, confirmed that the 2 actions were a part of the broader investigation of Sherry-Lehmann.
“We investigate criminal matters with a nexus to the U. S. Mail, and implement over 200 federal statutes,” Moore said in an email.
Law enforcement agents combed through Sherry-Lehmann’s Park Avenue store for hours this week.James Keivom
Sherry-Lehmann’s customers have been complaining for greater than a 12 months about wine they bought that was never delivered. Some customers said they believed the retailer’s sister company, Wine Caves, had removed their prize booze from storage and sold it to other customers, based on a Latest York Times report.
Wine Caves had pitched long-term storage services for Sherry-Lehmann customers who had more wine than they will accommodate in their very own cellars or who were on the lookout for a secure place for his or her pricey vintages.
Former employees of Sherry-Lehmann have told The Post that the retailer’s owners, Kris Green and Shyda Gilmer, moved Wine Caves from a warehouse in Jamaica, Queens to Blue Hill Plaza.
Blue Hill Plaza is owned by the identical company, Glorious Sun, that owns the Park Avenue constructing wherein the Sherry-Lehmann store is situated.LCM247/Wikimedia Commons
The move occurred a 12 months ago and was not known to the Latest York State Liquor Authority, which oversees and licenses such businesses, or to the purchasers who allege that their wine was moved without their permission, including to other customers.
A spokesman for the SLA told The Post that Wine Caves’ current license expires at the top of this 12 months and is related to the Queens address.
Blue Hill Plaza is owned by Glorious Sun, a Hong Kong-based real estate firm which also owns the Park Avenue constructing wherein Sherry-Lehmann’s store is situated.
The true estate firm didn’t immediately reply to a question.