Defunct New York Metropolis wine store Sherry-Lehmann has filed a weird lawsuit that blames its spectacular implosion two years in the past on its former house owners — in addition to a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.
The ill-fated vintner’s present proprietors — who shuttered the luxury Park Avenue retailer in March 2023 amid mounting buyer complaints over lacking wine orders — declare New York Occasions columnist James B. Stewart conspired with Sherry-Lehmann’s former house owners to create a “press smear campaign” in opposition to the store for his or her “financial benefit and personal gain.”
The swimsuit claims the 73-year-old scribe — finest recognized for his 1991 guide “Den of Thieves” in regards to the Michael Milken insider buying and selling scandal — additionally egged on regulation enforcement to raid Sherry-Lehmann, allegedly telling the US lawyer for the Southern District of New York that the wine store “was the greatest Ponzi scheme of all time.”
The swimsuit goes on to make the declare that Stewart and three of the store’s former house owners “orchestrated” a sequence of “false articles” in different publications — together with the New York Submit — that allegedly misrepresented Sherry-Lehmann to the general public and to regulation enforcement.
That, Sherry-Lehmann’s house owners alleged, quantities to a violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, based on the Might 27 swimsuit filed in Manhattan federal courtroom.
A spokesperson for The New York Occasions denied the RICO allegations, saying in a press release, “There is no merit to the claims and we plan to defend against the suit vigorously.”
In response to the allegations regarding The New York Submit, a spokeswoman stated in a press release, “These allegations are absurd, and show a complete lack of understanding of how journalism works.”
Sherry-Lehmann’s criticism alleges that Peter Hellman, a reporter for the commerce publication Wine Spectator, collaborated with Stewart “in researching and writing their articles for Wine Spectator and The New York Times, with Hellman claiming to a representative for Sherry-Lehmann that he was the ‘gumshoe reporter’ for Stewart’s article.”
The swimsuit additionally claims that Hellman tried to “impersonate an HVAC repairman” to enter Sherry-Lehmann’s temperature managed Wine Caves facility in Pearl River, NY “before he was escorted from the premises.”
The criticism likewise alleges that Stewart allegedly “impersonated a customer of Wine Caves (which Stewart never was)” to assemble info for his article and that he allegedly instructed a Sherry-Lehman rep that “this will win a Pulitzer Prize.”
Stewart has already gained a Pulitzer — in 1987 for his protection of the inventory market crash when he was a author for The Wall Avenue Journal.
A supply conversant in the lawsuit instructed The Submit that Stewart and Hellman have by no means met.
Stewart declined to remark. Hellman and Wine Spectator additionally declined to remark, citing “pending litigation.”
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of householders Kris Inexperienced and Shyda Gilmer, claims they missed out on a $20 million “merger” provide from “one of the largest vineyard owners in France” due to the damaging press and that the previous house owners needed to deep six the deal to promote the enterprise, based on the criticism.
Gilmer and Inexperienced additionally declare the corporate was within the purple lengthy earlier than they took over and blame the earlier possession’s administration for its woes.
“The co-conspirators…have engaged in a strategic, well-coordinated collaboration… to spread damaging false information about Sherry-Lehmann … with the sole intention of sabotaging its reputation and destroying its operations so they might profit,” based on the criticism.
The swimsuit singles out Stewart for a Might 25, 2023, exposé within the Grey Girl entitled “An Iconic Wine Store and the Mystery of the Missing Bottles” which reported that a number of the wine belonging to storage prospects was illegally bought to others. Sherry-Lehman denied this in its criticism.
Sherry-Lehmann had been shuttered two months earlier after the State Liquor Authority issued a stop and desist order as a result of the enterprise had didn’t renew its liquor license.
The almost century-old, debt-ridden wine store didn’t pay its landlord, distributors and state taxes whereas additionally reportedly stiffing its prospects out of wine that they had paid for. A separate wine storage enterprise – Wine Caves – went darkish on prospects who tried in useless get their booze again, as The Submit reported.
On the identical time, the earlier house owners have been dishing on Sherry-Lehmann’s present house owners, based on the lawsuit, as a result of they needed to be absolved of potential legal responsibility from the owner who’s owed tens of millions of {dollars}.
The earlier house owners, Michael Aaron, whose household based Sherry-Lehman, Michael Yurch and Chris Adams are being sued in a separate lawsuit filed final 12 months by Sherry-Lehmann’s landlord Superb Solar, which claims they’re accountable for the unpaid hire.
Aaron, Adams and Yurch declined to touch upon both of the lawsuits.
The earlier house owners argue that they way back severed ties with the enterprise and haven’t any stake in it, based on courtroom paperwork.
The ultimate nail within the coffin for the enterprise have been a number of raids by the FBI, NYPD and US Postal Inspection Service on its retailer and wine storage facility in Pearl River, NY in July 2023.
The “unnecessary raids” in 2023 and as lately as 2024 resulted in canceled orders from prospects, and potential acquirers, based on the criticism.
However notably, there have been “no indictments or arrests” because of these investigations, the swimsuit claims.
“After withstanding [a] highly damaged reputation for over two years,” the lawsuit states, “[Sherry-Lehmann] can now finally come forward to tell the real story and to seek a remedy against all co-conspirators who profited from their misconduct, while fleecing Sherry-Lehmann in the process.”
A US Postal Inspection Service spokesperson instructed The Submit that its investigation of Sherry-Lehmann is “active and ongoing.”
