Defunct NYC wine shop Sherry-Lehmann sues – Business News
Defunct New York City wine shop Sherry-Lehmann has filed a weird lawsuit that blames its spectacular implosion two years in the past on its former homeowners — in addition to a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.
The ill-fated vintner’s present proprietors — who shuttered the luxurious Park Avenue store in March 2023 amid mounting buyer complaints over lacking wine orders — declare New York Times columnist James B. Stewart conspired with Sherry-Lehmann’s former homeowners to create a “press smear campaign” in opposition to the shop for his or her “financial benefit and personal gain.”
The swimsuit claims the 73-year-old scribe — best recognized for his 1991 ebook “Den of Thieves” concerning the Michael Milken insider trading scandal — additionally egged on law enforcement to raid Sherry-Lehmann, allegedly telling the US legal professional for the Southern District of New York that the wine shop “was the greatest Ponzi scheme of all time.”
James B. Stewart is a Pulitzer-winning journalist for The New York occasions. Getty Images
The swimsuit goes on to make the declare that Stewart and three of the shop’s former homeowners “orchestrated” a sequence of “false articles” in different publications — together with the New York Post — that allegedly misrepresented Sherry-Lehmann to the public and to law enforcement.
That, Sherry-Lehmann’s homeowners alleged, quantities to a violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, in response to the May 27 swimsuit filed in Manhattan federal court docket.
A spokesperson for The New York Times denied the RICO allegations, saying in a assertion, “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 Post, a spokeswoman mentioned in a assertion, “These allegations are absurd, and show a complete lack of understanding of how journalism works.”
Shyda Gilmer is a co-owner of Sherry-Lehmann. New York Post
Sherry-Lehmann’s grievance 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 grievance likewise alleges that Stewart allegedly “impersonated a customer of Wine Caves (which Stewart never was)” to collect data for his article and that he allegedly instructed a Sherry-Lehman rep that “this will win a Pulitzer Prize.”
A lawsuit filed on behalf of Kris Green (on the left) and Shyda Gilmer names New York Times columnist James B. Stewart as a defendant. Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Gotham Magazine
Stewart has already gained a Pulitzer — in 1987 for his protection of the stock market crash when he was a author for The Wall Street Journal.
A source conversant in the lawsuit instructed The Post 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 homeowners Kris Green and Shyda Gilmer, claims they missed out on a $20 million “merger” offer from “one of the largest vineyard owners in France” as a result of of the detrimental press and that the previous homeowners needed to deep six the deal to sell the business, in response to the grievance.
FBI brokers raided the Park Avenue store in July 2023. James Keivom
Gilmer and Green additionally declare the company was within the pink long earlier than they took over and blame the earlier possession’s management 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,” in response to the grievance.
The swimsuit singles out Stewart for a May 25, 2023, exposé within the Gray Lady entitled “An Iconic Wine Store and the Mystery of the Missing Bottles” which reported that some of the wine belonging to storage clients was illegally bought to others. Sherry-Lehman denied this in its grievance.
Sherry-Lehmann had been shuttered two months earlier after the State Liquor Authority issued a stop and desist order as a result of the business had did not renew its liquor license.
Sherry-Lehmann’s landlord, Glorious Sun, is suing earlier homeowners of the store for unpaid rent. James Keivom
The practically century-old, debt-ridden wine shop did not pay its landlord, distributors and state taxes whereas additionally reportedly stiffing its clients out of wine that they had paid for. A separate wine storage business – Wine Caves – went darkish on clients who tried in useless get their booze back, as The Post reported.
At the identical time, the earlier homeowners have been dishing on Sherry-Lehmann’s present homeowners, in response to 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 homeowners, Michael Aaron, whose household based Sherry-Lehman, Michael Yurch and Chris Adams are being sued in a separate lawsuit filed final yr by Sherry-Lehmann’s landlord Glorious Sun, which claims they’re answerable for the unpaid rent.
Aaron, Adams and Yurch declined to touch upon both of the lawsuits.
The store closed briefly in March 2023 and by no means reopened. New York Post/Lisa Fickenscher
The earlier homeowners argue that they long in the past severed ties with the business and have no stake in it, in response to court docket paperwork.
The ultimate nail within the coffin for the business have been a number of raids by the FBI, NYPD and US Postal Inspection Service on its store 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 clients, and potential acquirers, in response to the grievance.
But notably, there have been “no indictments or arrests” as a end result 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 Post that its investigation of Sherry-Lehmann is “active and ongoing.”
