Business

No beer here: Greenport 7-Eleven liquor license expires

Cutchogue 7-Eleven reopens

Sorry Greenport: 7-Eleven is out for that last-minute beer run. At least for a little while.

The store’s liquor license, which is still in the name of its previous owners, expired Oct. 31. Until the matter is straightened out, the store is not allowed to sell alcoholic beverages.

An employee confirmed the news, and New York State’s Liquor Authority website notes that it expired last month as well.

The store has been run by the 7-Eleven corporation since its former owners were among five people indicted in June 2013 following federal raids of 10 of the convenience chain’s locations on Long Island and Virginia.

In September, the five suspects, including Greenport store owners Farrukh Baig, 58, and his wife Bushra Baig, 50, of Head of the Harbor, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and concealing and harboring illegal aliens while stealing their wages, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

As part of their plea, the defendants forfeited the rights to 10 7-Eleven stores in New York, including the Greenport and Cutchogue locations, and four 7-Eleven stores in Virginia, as well as five houses in New York worth over $1.3 million, prosecutors said. The deal marked the largest criminal immigration forfeiture in Department of Homeland Security history, according to the news release.

The defendants also agreed to pay more than $2.6 million in restitution for the back wages that they stole from their workers, the release states.

According to the SLA website, the liquor license for the Cutchogue store expires at the end of November, next year.