[aesop_image imgwidth=”500px” img=”https://static.panoramio.com.storage.googleapis.com/photos/large/128109462.jpg” align=”left” lightbox=”off” captionposition=”center”]
Investing in and speculating on grape harvests and the production of wine has been ongoing for well over a thousand years. Once bottles were invented in the 1800s wine speculation became increasingly popular over time. Without question, investing in wine can bring significant returns to your investment portfolio. However, handing over one’s investment dollars to a middleman will most always have risks. It’s easy to imagine how investors specifically and wine enthusiasts generally may be easy targets by people claiming to be in a position to sell future shares in wine.
Shop Closes in Wake of Bankruptcy
Premier CRU in Berkeley, California has held itself out to the world as a merchant of fine wine. The wine shop has had customers, both local and throughout the world, that were willing to pay in advance of the actual availability of the wine. It’s not unusual for a wine buyer to be ready to plunk down their cash in advance knowing that they will have to sit tight an wait until their bottle ultimately becomes available. A business built on this model can certainly present itself as an opportunity to take advantage of people.
Â
Premier CRU until recently had a huge and very attractive shop on University Avenue. However, first shutting the doors to their brick & mortar store in Berkeley and then conducting sales only through online purchases through their website and then they finally closed shop all together. In the wake of closing down there are many investors that have complained of being bamboozled and sustaining substantial loses. At least one investor spoke of complaining to the Alameda County District Attorney’s office. An elderly Bay Area resident has indicated a loss as high as $45,000 from his investment in the wine shop’s overtures. Investors were repeatedly excuses of how a supplying container ship was “stuck in port.”
Â
Â
Premier CRU wine customer William Gladstone described his dealings with Premier CRU in a very telling manner saying that the shop owner has represented having a process in place that requires years of patience in waiting for your wine delivery. Gladstone represents having been advised that he may need to wait as long as eight years for a delivery. He suspected that when a customer complains long and loud enough that the shop will use funds from another customer to secure the wine for the complaining customer. Gladstone, and other complaining buyers, described and alleged an ongoing ponzi scheme. Such schemes are built on fraudulent investments where the operator will pay some returns on investments from the new capital leached out of new investors.
