Wine dinner/event investment fraud scheme - Omar Khan

As a lender this kind of thing is particularly terrifying, and I am incredibly thankful not to be mixed up in it. It’s the kind of thing that could put me out of work very quickly.

Scary story for industry folks, but I’m sure of interest to those that are just collectors too.

I can’t think of a single zillion-page thread on this board to which the stuff in this article bears even a slight resemblance.

Me either.

But really, if you’re going to use wine as some sort of investment vehicle, I don’t feel all that bad. It’s a perishable drink and once you’re past absolute plonk, intrinsically one bottle is rarely better than another. Plus you can always take out the good stuff and fill it with bad stuff and who will know? Gold will always be gold, a stock will always be worth whatever some percentage share of the company is worth, but your wine, if it’s not fraudulent, will eventually cease being something to drink. I can’t imagine Warren Buffet going big into wine.

Not sure what industry it’s scary for but from this crowd, the people who are investment sorts have basically put a big label on themselves as people you shouldn’t trust with your money.

Weird story and a weirder news article since I have no better idea what the guy did than before I read the article. Nice chuckle, though, at this line which would tend to suggest his marks really fell down on their due diligence: “claimed ties to famous names like Philippe Rothschild of the Mouton winery”

I see that one of the defrauded is a bigshot with the Cato Institute…a subsidiary of Koch Industries…wait til the Kochs sic their team of FBI agents on this guy…fun fun fun

Wow, first to reply…I will choose…oh, oh oh,…this is tough.

I choose: It only hurt rich people so they are chumps who had it coming.

Did I win?

Yesterday’s news-

To Keith’s point raised above, the article feels partially written by a news bot with an intern filling in the gaps (poorly).

And in April, the owner of Cellaraiders, a rare wine store in Brewster, N.Y., filed a suit. According to Ben Wallace’s complaint, he and Khan partnered on a series of wine dinners in 2018, with Cellaraiders investing more than $250,000 as well as supplying more than $36,000 worth of rare wines. Khan sent Wallace several checks, all of which bounced.

Wow was surprised to see Ben tied up in this.

A wine-loving business consultant accused of bilking Wall Street highfliers out of millions is being probed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, The Post has learned.

Prosecutors in the DA’s Major Economic Crimes bureau have met with multiple alleged victims of Omar Khan over allegations that he swindled Wall Street bigwigs and other wealthy New Yorkers out of millions for wine events that never happened, sources said.

Specifically, the top prosecutor is looking at claims that Khan once doctored an e-mail from the office of Philippe Rothschild, the owner of the upscale Chateau Mouton winery, to falsely showcase his ties to the esteemed winery — and dupe people into investing with him, according to two people familiar with the DA’s questioning.

Khan is known in New York business circles for hosting rarified dinners where expensive wines — some worth more than $30,000 — are served to about a dozen guests, usually wealthy and important people.

Guests who have attended Khan’s events include Pierre Lurton, the director of Chateau Cheval Blanc, a high-end wine estate owned by luxury brand LVMH; Sir Ivor Martin Crewe, the master of University College at Oxford, and retired real estate developer Daniel Rose, known for building Pentagon City in Arlington, Va., according to sources and social media.

As The Post exclusively reported last week, a group of high-profile Wall Streeters, including Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, are suing Khan in Manhattan state court, claiming he conned them into investing into fake wine events.

The group is seeking more than $8 million plus interest — the bulk of which came from ex-Renaissance Technologies researcher Kresimir Penavic, who invested close to $5 million with Khan through 27 events from 2015 to 2018.

Three other suits have accused Khan, head of Park Avenue consulting firm Sensei International, of similar allegations. He has denied the allegations in the suits, and has settled one from 2015.

The probe from Vance’s office, however, shows an escalation in potential woes for Khan.

“It’s not civil, it’s criminal,” one person familiar with the investigation told The Post.

Of interest to the prosecutors on the case, which is being run by Assistant DA Lisa White, is the allegation in the latest lawsuit by the group of Wall Streeters that Khan “manufactured” an e-mail from Rothschild’s office because, if true, it would suggest he knowingly defrauded investors, the people said.

Khan said he wasn’t aware of any investigation and declined to comment further.

But in a 20-minute interview with The Post on Sept. 4, Khan blamed “cash-flow issues” that stemmed from clients who failed to pay him.

“There’s no e-mail from Philippe Rothschild himself that had anything to do with anything here,” Khan said after calling a Post reporter’s cell phone.

Later, Khan suggested he never had any specific dealing with the Rothschild winery — and never claimed otherwise.

“I shared what I thought some of [Rothschild’s] possible interests would be, and that may have been construed or interpreted as whatever. I’m not saying I misunderstood [the Rothschilds] or they even made any explicit suggestions. They did not.”

He went on to insist that there was nothing in writing to show otherwise — before realizing there might, in fact, be written evidence.

“Certainly, there were not, yeah, there was nothing written to that effect that I’m aware of. I could be wrong. I could be wrong,” he said.

After The Post published the story about his alleged wine scheme. Khan sent a text saying the story could hurt his ability to make amends with investors.

“I didn’t mention that unfortunately your running the story as we’ve started settling as best we can, will make it so much harder,” he wrote.

“I can but ask you give that some thought. If we made no progress, it would still be a story later. Right now, everyone stands to lose,” he wrote.

A spokesman for the DA’s office declined to comment.

Oh, man, not again.

This guy must be stopped.

It’s deja vu all over again.

There is no quit in this kid.

This is why I love you guys.

Con artists go where the money is. You won’t see them attempting to bilk trailer trash. You can’t get blood from a stone. People who can afford these kinds of wine are great targets.

Peter Slagowitz and I worked at the same shop, and he raced J-44’s. Small world.