Manhattan law firm Pryor Cashman is suing the head of the “Brother Jimmy’s” BBQ mini-empire — claiming he’s a liar and crook who owes them more then $400,000 in legal fees.
The lawsuit accuses restaurateur James Goldman of repeatedly promising to pay the firm, which has represented him since 2009, but never paying.
The Manhattan Supreme Court suit also accuses Goldman of using his company, Dining Entertainment Group, as a “personal piggy bank,” and of purposefully defrauding DEG’s investors by transferring the company’s assets into companies he controlled.
“Goldman is a largely unsuccessful restaurateur who has run a number of dining establishments, including, through DEG, Brother Jimmy’s-branded restaurants,” the court papers read. “At various times, through poor judgment and the distasteful way he treats others, Goldman’s businesses have failed, leading him to raid the corporate till to pay for his own lifestyle and move around assets as part of a shell game to avoid creditors.”
“With no apparent sense of shame or duty, even while he and DEG racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid legal bills, Goldman had DEG pay for his housing and vacations and transferred other company funds to himself as a purported ‘consultant’ of the company he owned and controlled,” the firms papers say. “He then fraudulently transferred assets out of DEG to another company he controls in a brazen and knowing effort to stiff his creditors, including Pryor Cashman.”
Goldman called the lawsuit a “hatchet job,” and said he was utterly “stunned” he’d been sued, since he never owned the majority of DEG, and wasn’t on the hook for the funds.
“I believe that this complaint was crafted to force a settlement, against my partners and my company, which are not the people responsible for the bill,” said Goldman.
Goldman’s attorney Paul Condzal called the allegations “outrageous, scandalous, and libelous,” and said he would be filing a countersuit against Pryor Cashman for breach of fiduciary duty.
“We very much look forward to prosecuting this matter to the fullest extent of the law against the the individuals who signed that complaint,” Condzal said.
