NEW YORK -- An insurance company executive is claiming some financial hanky-panky occurred during a visit to an upscale strip club that left him out $28,000.
Mitchell Blaser, 54, filed a lawsuit Wednesday claiming he was stripped of the money through bogus credit card charges after a night out with two friends at the Manhattan topless club Scores.
A Scores spokesman denied the accusation, saying Blaser was spending "like a rock star" and the club's paperwork proves it. The tab for the evening included $16,000 for five bottles of top-of-the-line Champagne and $7,000 for lap dances.
Blaser, CFO for the American division of Swiss Reinsurance Co., said when he complained that the bill was wrong, club employees told him to sign or he would not get his credit card back.
Scores spokesman Lonnie Hanover said club employees checked with American Express several times during the night while Blaser was there to make sure that his line of credit permitted the kind of spending he was doing.
Hanover said American Express investigated Blaser's complaints in January. He said the credit card company sent Scores a letter dated Jan. 22 confirming that the charges were legitimate.
Steve Dishart, a spokesman for Swiss Reinsurance, one of the world's largest insurers, said he couldn't comment because Blaser's lawsuit involves "a personal dispute."
