Wine Store Accused of Selling Counterfeit Rare Bourbon Pays $100,000 Fine — But Retains Employees Responsible for the ‘Clear Fraud’
New York City wine store and auction house Acker Merrall Condit has been fined $100,000 after being accused of selling bottles of counterfeit bourbon. Bottles of Colonel E.H. Taylor Four Grain Bourbon selling for nearly $1,000 were fake.
A New York City wine retailer and auction house accused of selling counterfeit bottles of expensive Colonel E.H. Taylor Four Grain bourbon is paying a $100,000 fine to settle the charges, the New York Post reported. However, the retailer — Acker Merrall Condit — has opted not to terminate any of the employees responsible for the scandal.
The 203-year-old store has agreed to pay the maximum fine after an investigation by state regulators.
The counterfeit was first exposed in 2021 by TV program “Inside Edition,” which purchased a bottle of the bourbon for “nearly $1,000” and sent the bottle to producer Buffalo Trace for a chemical analysis, which determined the liquid purported to be Colonel E.H. Taylor “didn’t match their product.”
Read Our Review of Colonel E.H. Taylor Four Grain Bourbon
The New York State Liquor Authority’s investigation found that store employees bought the fake bourbon from a private collector “despite telltale signs that it wasn’t authentic,” according to the New York Post.
“There was clear fraud here or at least a large potential for fraud,” New York State Liquor Authority Commissioner Vincent Bradley said at a hearing, according to the New York Post, which reported that Bradley also said employees “were going out with their own money, buying from private collections and reselling it to the liquor store, but not telling the liquor store what they paid for it.”
Acker Merrall’s lawyer, Kevin Danow, said the employees in question “have been disciplined” and “retrained.” He also said the state investigation “frankly scared the hell out of them.”
It is not clear, however, whether Acker Merrall believes there was ill intent behind the employees’ actions or simple negligence.
“We believe Acker was targeted,” Danow said without further explanation.
Between 2020 and 2021, Acker was fined five separate times for purchasing whiskey from “unauthorized” sellers and failing to keep proper records.
“It’s not legal what the [Acker] employees did,” SLA spokesman Joshua Heller told the New York Post. “But it’s a little bit gray whether they were acting as agents for the company.”
Counterfeit whiskey is a significant problem in the U.S. The industry is booming, which has led to a massive escalation in scams.
In September, distilleries Buffalo Trace and Michter’s warned of an influx of bourbon scams and offered tips to avoid being conned. These scams have gotten so out of hand that social media accounts solely devoted to tracking them have cropped up.
In January, the New York Times reported that empty bottles of premium brands of whiskey such as Pappy Van Winkle, Old Fitzgerald and The Macallan are selling for hundreds of dollars on websites such as eBay, an indication that scammers are purchasing empty bottles, filling them with cheap whiskey — and who knows what else? — and selling them for high prices.
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