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Sherry-Lehmann’s hidden ‘Wine Caves’ possibly found in NY FBI raid, sources say
The FBI raided a sleepy office complex north of New York City this week — and it could be the unlikely site where iconic wine shop Sherry-Lehmann has secretly been stashing a fortune in fine wines, The Post has learned.
On Tuesday — even as FBI agents were scouring Sherry-Lehmann’s now-shuttered shop on the Upper East Side, as reported exclusively by The Post — another FBI team descended upon a suburban tower in Pearl River, NY, in what looked like an orchestrated blitz, sources close to the situation said.
The FBI appears to have been searching for what could be a massive stash of pri🔯ze booze in an underground, air-conditioned room at the✱ office park called Blue Hill Plaza where computer servers are located, a source with knowledge of the investigation told The Post.
News 12 Hudson Valley, a local TV station ope🌠rated by Altice, in New York’s Rockland County, including a confirmation from the agency that it had been at Blue Hill Plaza.
The FBI🐽 did not disclose to the outlet the reason it was there, and didn’t immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
After this story was initially published, a spokesperson for the US Postal Inspection Service reached out to The Post to say the agency is “co-lead with the FBI and NYPD” in the Sherry-Lehmann investigation. The USPIS typically probes mail fraud.
Sources close to Sherry-Lehmann note that Blue Hill Plaza is owned by Hong Kong-based Glorious Sun Group — which also owns the glass-and-steel tower at 505 Park Ave. where Sherry-Lehmann has been an anchor tenant since 2007.
The apparent coordinated raid on the embattled, 88-year-old vintner comes as the feds investigate the disappearance of clients’ prized vintages even as the shop has shutte♋red, according to sources close to the situation.
The mystery intensified last August, when Sherry-Lehmann co-owners Shyda Gilmer and Kris Green moved a wine storage service registered under the 🍷name “Wine Caves” from a warehouse at 156ꦏ–02 Liberty Ave. in Jamaica, Queens, which is the address listed on its State Liquor Authority warehouse permit, which expires on Dec. 31.
A real estate agent representing the Jamaica space confirmed that Wine Caves moved out last🔯 summer. Former Sherry-Lehmann employees sai💯d it was evicted for not paying the rent.
Gilmer and Green, however, never registered a new storage facility with the SLA — rendering any new storage facility illegal.
“A warehouse liquor license is not a driver’s license,” said liquor license attorney Max Bookman. “It’s issued for a particular location and you need a new one if you move.”
There also is no record of the Wine Caves business at either of the two buildings at Blue Hill Plaza, according to interviews with the property management company, CBRE, as well as security guards and a list of tenants on display in the lobbies during a recent visit to the buildings🌼 by The Post.
Glorious Sun declined to𒁃 comment on whether and why Wine Caves is loca💙ted in its building, its attorney told The Post.
But the Hong Kong real estate company, which owns just seven buildings in the US, served Sherry-Lehmann in June with an eviction notice for its༺ Park Avenue location, according to a.
Sherry-Lehmann owes Gඣlorious Sun $3.6 million in rent that goes back to 2020, according to the report.
Wine Caves is a separate company from Sherr♏y-Lehmann and offers lon🌠g-term wine storage for its wealthy clients, who may not have the space for their vast collections or want a safe place to keep their expensive hooch.
One such client, Mercedes Bass, the widow of oil tycoon Sid Bass, kept her collection at Wine Caves and became aware that some of her bottles had been removed from the facility without her permission and delivered to anothꦇer customer,.
Gilmer told the Times that the transfer had been a mಞistake and that the wine would be returned within days, according to the report. A spokesman for Sherry-Lehmann said the Bass family had picked up its collection from Wine Caves, but the family said that was not true, according to the re🍃port.
Sherry-Lehmann faces multiple threats, including lawsuits from💝🍷 its customers and vendors who were allegedly stiffed by the venerable retailer.
At least three customers sued the iconic retailer, claiming they are owed more than $1 million worth of wine ⭕fu𓆏tures they bought several years ago that never arrived.
The shuttered shop also owes New York nearly $2.8 mi✅llion million in unpaid sales tax, for which Gilmer is personally liable.
Gilmer joined Sherry-Lehmann in 1996 in sales and became co-owne🌺r of the company in 2005.
Green, a former hedge fund executive, invested in the bu൩siness in 2013, becoming a co-owner at tᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚhe time.
The pair are often seen dining at Nobu, separately or together — and in the past with clients.
Gilmer 🌌was spotted ♏there this month, sources tell The Post, as well as at a Cigar Bar in Manhattan.
Gilmer and Green, who appear to be targets of the FBI investigatio🐽n, according to former Sherry-Lehmann em𒅌ployees who have been questioned by law enforcement, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Nixon Peabody, a law firm representing Sherry-Lehmann in l꧙awsuits over missing wine from former customerℱs, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
