NY- The busty dancers at the Penthouse Executive Club likely want to stick their 6-inch stilettos into Peter Nelson.
The 5-foot-9 energy executive apparently loves living large – he just doesn’t enjoy paying for it, according to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Nelson allegedly ran up a $102,837 tab at the upscale strip club after buying lap dances, slabs of prime beef and bottles of expensive liquor. But when the bill came due, he refused to open his wallet, the pleasure palace says.
“What can I say?” said Perry Burkett, an attorney for the Penthouse Executive Club. “He just turned out to be not honorable.”
Nelson, 55, who is listed as an owner of small energy-related firms in Westchester County and Connecticut, allegedly visited the W. 45th St. club on a regular basis.
“It’s not that this guy received 20 lap dances in one night and didn’t pay,” Burkett said.
Nelson allegedly racked up his monster bill between September 2005 and last May, often bringing employees and business associates to be entertained by girls who stripped down to their G-strings.
He also is accused of being a skinflint at the club’s inhouse restaurant, Robert’s, where high-rolling patrons can order $105 Kobe steaks and $3,500 bottles of champagne while watching dancers peel off their sequined gowns.
“He enjoyed the club, he enjoyed the restaurant, he enjoyed the environment,” Burkett said. “Obviously, he liked to enjoy himself.”
Nelson, who could not be reached for comment, is the latest strip-club patron to end up in court.
The so-called Lap Dunce, disgraced Missouri executive Robert McCormick, lost his job at Savvis Communications last year for running up a $241,000 bill on his company credit card at Scores.
Before suing Nelson, the Penthouse club tried repeatedly to collect, club officials said. The club now finds itself among several others trying to get cash from Nelson, including his own lawyer.
Nelson and his Westchester-based company, Alternate Energy Services, have lawsuits pending against them in three New York counties. In one of the cases, he is being sued for $1.5 million for unpaid work. In a similar case, he was ordered to pay a company more than $400,000. His own attorney quit on him last April, charging that he owed more than $22,000 in fees.
At Nelson’s now-vacated offices in Hawthorne, another tenant said, he hasn’t been seen in weeks. Phones for both his businesses have been disconnected.