Brian Fleury, Tax Evasion, California 2025

Napa Valley winery owner Brian Fleury, 64, of Napa County, has pleaded guilty to aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false tax return for the 2016 tax year.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Fleury and his spouse owned Napa Valley winery Metropolitan Wines, LLC and several vineyards also located in Napa Valley.

For tax years 2014 through 2018, Fleury intentionally underreported income earned by Metropolitan Wines to his income tax preparer.

Fleury directed some customers to pay for their wine by writing checks directly to Fleury instead of to Metropolitan Wines.

Fleury wrote or directed his employees to write “OTB,” for “off the books,” on some of these customers’ invoices.

Fleury kept these payments for himself and did not report this as income earned by Metropolitan Wines.

Between 2014 and 2018, Fleury underreported his and his spouse’s income by $822,450.

Fleury also admitted that from 2007 through 2019, he failed to pay federal excise tax that was due on brandy he received, possessed, and sold.

Fleury filed annual reports with the United States Department of the Treasury, Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) that falsely stated that no wine had been removed for distilling material, no wine had been produced with the addition of wine spirits, no distilled spirits were on hand, and no spirits had been sold or received in bond.

Fleury knew these statements were false.

In fact, in 2007, Fleury directed that 3,983 gallons of wine be transferred to a distilled spirits plant, and later that year, the plant returned 911.33 proof gallons of brandy to Metropolitan Wines.

Fleury also admitted that he had produced 2006, 2008, and 2009 vintage brandy, and that he bottled and sold brandy from 2013 through 2018 under the name “9 Fiddy” for $350 per 375 ml bottle in regular wine bottles to conceal his sale of brandy.

In total, Fleury caused a tax loss to the IRS and TTB of $211,092.

Fleury pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false tax return in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7206(2), which carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 13, 2025, before Senior U.S. District Judge Maxine M. Chesney.

Any sentence will be imposed by the Court only after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.

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