The federal government is on the brink of wrapping up a years-long investigation into the iconic wine shop Shelley Lehmann and may bring charges against its former owners for cheating customers out of vintage wines, according to information obtained by The Washington Post.
Investigators from the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service have been interviewing several former employees over the past few weeks ahead of a grand jury hearing scheduled for Thursday, former employees with direct knowledge of the investigation told The Washington Post.
Those interviewed were asked about the company’s practice of selling wines that were not stocked or available in stores, a person with knowledge of the agents’ questioning told The Washington Post.
Prosecutors first appointed a grand jury last June after customers said they had been cheated out of expensive wines they paid for but never received, as well as wine stored in the venerable wine merchant’s “wine caves,” which appeared to have disappeared.
According to court documents, Sherry Lehmann’s co-owner, Shaida Gilmer, is being sued by the company’s landlords, vendors and customers for breach of contract, contempt of court and fraud.
The federal government is also investigating the role of Chris Green, a former hedge fund executive who took an undisclosed stake in the company in 2013, sources told The Washington Post.
The grand jury could serve for more than a year but has yet to return any charges.
“There is a very active investigation ongoing and it appears to be nearing a conclusion.“ “These are very shady deals,” said Sheldon Gopstein, an attorney who is representing clients who are suing retailers for buying and never receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of wine futures.
“It is not uncommon for federal grand jury proceedings to last a year or more,” added Richard Schonstein, an attorney with Tarter, Krinsky & Drogin LLP, who is not involved in the case.
“Investigations like this are very complex, involve a lot of people and a lot of paperwork,” Schonstein added.
Gilmer and Green did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Federal prosecutors, the FBI and USPIS declined to comment.
Shelley Lehmann closed its Park Avenue location in March 2023 after the state Liquor Board found it was operating with an expired license, and it never reopened.
Towards the end of its 88 years in business, Shelley-Lehmann stocked its shelves primarily with cheaper wines, when it could get them from suppliers — a far cry from the rare Bordeaux wines that drew celebrity customers.
As reported exclusively by The Washington Post, FBI agents raided the store shortly after closing and removed several boxes.
Investigators also swarmed an office building in Pearl River, New York, where a well-known wine company stored rare vintages for wealthy clients who paid a monthly fee to keep their collections safe in storage facilities known as Wine Caves.
Former employees and industry experts still wonder what happened to the Wine Caves, which moved in 2022 from a warehouse in Jamaica, Queens, to Blue Hill Plaza, an office building owned by Shelley Lehmann’s former landlord in Manhattan, the Hong Kong-based Glorious Sun Group.
“The biggest mystery is the wine cave,” said a former Shelley-Lehmann executive. “All the expensive wine is stored there and no one seems to talk about it.”
The FBI has previously interviewed Wine Caves clients, some of whom contacted The Washington Post in a desperate attempt to find out what happened to their collections after calls and emails to Shelley Lehman went unreturned.
One wine enthusiast has two cases of 1982 Petrus Bordeaux he bought from a retailer 40 years ago and believes they would be worth around $90,000 today.
He doesn’t even know where the rare bottle is kept.
