Businessman pleads guilty to stealing up to $1.5M in wine
BALTIMORE — A Maryland man has pleaded guilty to embezzling up to $1.5 million in upscale wine from customers who paid him to store the bottles, which he sold without their knowledge.
A plea agreement calls for 54-year-old William Lamont Holder of Hanover, Md., to be sentenced to 18 months in prison for his guilty plea Tuesday to a wire fraud charge. A federal judge must decide whether to accept the agreement’s terms.
Holder owned Safe Harbour Wine Storage LLC. A court filing says private collectors and businesses paid him a monthly fee to store their inventory in a climate-controlled warehouse.
Prosecutors say Holder’s customers lost between $550,000 and $1.5 million worth of wine that he sold to wine retailers and brokers without their consent.
Holder is scheduled to be sentenced July 31.
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