Raided Kentucky liquor store admits alcohol violations in Washington D.C.
Justins’ House of Bourbon, which was raided in January in Kentucky and in Washington D.C., has admitted to two violations on alcohol regulations in D.C. and agreed to pay fines.
According to an order approved May 10 by the D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, Justins’ House of Bourbon will pay a $1,500 fine for failure to keep and maintain books and records on premises and will pay another $1,500 fine for interfering with an investigation by failing to produce documents within 48 hours.
The settlement also dismissed two charges for misuse of an off-premises storage facility and for illegally transporting alcoholic beverages within the District, according to the order.
Tom Bullock, attorney for Justins’ House of Bourbon, did not respond to a request for comment.
The compromise came just as the D.C. alcohol board was scheduled to have a show-cause hearing over the potential violations stemming from the January raid that founds hundreds of potentially illegally transported bottles of bourbon.
Justins’ House of Bourbon, which opened in 2018 in the wake of the passage of Kentucky’s Vintage Distilled Spirits law that allows private citizens to sell bottles to retailers, has a store in Lexington at 601 W. Main St. and another in Louisville at at 101 West Market St. Both stores specialize in vintage and hard-to-find whiskeys.
Justins’ also has been licensed for Internet sales in Washington, D.C., which allows retailers to sell alcohol to consumers through websites for delivery only, without a store open to the public.
All of the stores are owned by Justin Thompson, Justin Sloan and Phillip Lee Greer, a prominent Lexington developer, according to public documents.
It’s unclear what if any additional legal action the liquor retailer could face. The raids were part of a multistate investigation that also involved Kentucky, Texas, Pennsylvania and federal alcohol agents.
Kentucky alcohol authorities did not respond to a request for comment.
In January, Kentucky authorities seized “numerous bottles of bourbon and other items of evidence ... associated with suspected improper purchasing and sale of these products.”
In D.C., hundreds of bottles of Blanton’s and Weller were placed under voluntary detention by federal alcohol authorities.
According to the case report, investigators found that Justins’ was improperly importing hundreds of bottles of Blanton’s from the Netherlands.
Investigators also said that they could not find any licensing for a Pennsylvania company called Starr Liquidation from which Justins’ allegedly bought 600 bottles of Weller bourbon.
This story was originally published May 15, 2023 at 9:18 AM with the headline "Raided Kentucky liquor store admits alcohol violations in Washington D.C.."
