From www.nypost.com – Nearly two dozen NHL stars are seeking a courtroom face off with a resort developer who allegedly squandered their $25 million investment to throw debauched parties — complete with porn stars and hookers — for his baseball buddies Roger Clemens, Reggie Jackson and Pete Rose, according to two explosive lawsuits filed this afternoon.
The 19 former and current players — including an all-star roster of Rangers and Islanders — are demanding that Las Vegas-based golf course mogul Ron Jowdy return their money, plus $15 million in damages, for failing to build two luxury resorts in Mexico that are seven years behind schedule.
Jowdy allegedly got rowdy by blowing their investment on “lavish parties” that included “various female porn stars, escorts, strippers [and] party girls” to impress Clemens, Jackson, Rose and ESPN announcer Joe Morgan, one of the suits filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleges.
Jowdy did not immediately return calls for comment.
Among the biggest losers in the failed investment are Bryan Berard and Michael Peca, both former Ranger and Islander players, who each lost $700,000, while ex-Ranger Mattian Norstrom lost $600,000, according to the suits.
Among the claims, Jowdy allegedly:
— Put a woman named Adrian Moore — described as a “regular party attendee” who was “close to Clemens” — on his payroll “as a personal favor” to the former Yankees Cy Young hurler
— Paid himself an $800,000 a year salary — plus travel and entertainment expenses — while his brother-in-law, Connecticut lawyer Bill Najam, took in $650,000 annually even though his role in the company “has yet to be identified”
— Hired Brian MacNamee, the onetime Clemens trainer who told Congress he supplied the ballplayer with steroids, as fitness trainer for one property as another favor to the former all-star.
— Paid the projects’ sole construction manager Ken Ayers a $550,000 annual salary, even though he spent fewer than 20 days at the sites in seven years and had a full-time job in California.
According to the suits, Jowdy lavished attention on the famous ballplayers “under the guise that these individuals would eventually purchase real estate” in the planned resorts.
But “Clemens and even his wife were vocal and adamant that they would never purchase” the property, the papers allege.
Other professional athletes said they weren’t buyers, either.
“It is simply stupefying how Ken Jowdy was entrusted as being the steward of 20 NHL players’ capital and ended up grossly mismanaging it — to the point where the only thing they have to show for it is sand on a beach in the middle of nowhere,” blasted the players’ lawyer Ronald Richards.
The other players suing in Los Angeles court include Chris Simon, who played for both the Rangers and Islanders; former Rangers Mattias Norstrom, Greg deVries, Steve Rucchin, and Rem Murray; former New Jersey Devil Turner Stevenson; and 2009 Pittsburgh Stanley Cup champion Sergei Goncha.