Guilty Plea Entered By Hanover Man In Wine Thefts

HANOVER, MD – William Lamont Holder, 54, of Hanover has entered a guilty plea to a federal wire charge for stealing between $550,000 and $1.5 million worth of wine from his clients. Holder preyed upon private collectors and commercial establishments, swindling them out of their most expensive bottles during a five-year period.

The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur; Acting Special Agent in Charge Jennifer Moore of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; and Anne Arundel County Police Chief Tim Altomare on May 14.

According to his plea agreement, Holder was the sole owner and operator of Safe Harbour Wine Storage, LLC. Holder stored and transported upscale wines for private collectors and commercial establishments. In return for a monthly fee, Holder would arrange for the transportation of a customer’s wine to Safe Harbour’s storage facility in Glen Burnie, Maryland, where it would be inventoried and stored. Holder did not possess a license to sell wine in the State of Maryland, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland stated in a press release.

From January 2013 through December 2017, Holder devised a scheme to obtain payments and wine from the customers of Safe Harbour for his own personal financial gain. However, his customers had no idea that he had offered their wine for sale to wine retailers and brokers around the country, including in Napa, California. Meanwhile, he still collected the customers’ monthly storage fees and accepted additional wine for storage, the press release stated.

Holder posed as the lawful owner of the wine he was selling to the third-party buyers. He provided them with lists of bottled wine he allegedly stored in his warehouse. The customers selected the bottles they wanted to buy and Holder then boxed and shipped the wine. Once the customers inspected and improved the bottles of wine, they would either wire payment into his account or send a check. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, Holder then kept the money and spent it on personal expenses.

If the Court accepts Holder’s plea agreement, he will be sentenced to 18 months in federal prison. U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake has scheduled sentencing for July 31, 2019 at 10:30 a.m.