Ex-Sleepy’s exec: I was lured into ticket scheme
Adam Blank says he and others lost $1.5M in the ‘can’t-lose’ deal
The former president of U.S. mattress chain Sleepy’s says he was lured into bed with an alleged Ponzi scheme investment involving ticket resales for the Broadway blockbuster Hamilton and other hit shows.
Adam Blank says he and several trusts lost $1.5 million after broker-dealer Tripoint Global Equities and related companies and individuals persuaded him to invest in what they billed as a “can’t lose” deal, according to a civil lawsuit filed Monday.
Instead, the investment turned out to be what federal authorities last month alleged was a scam that raised more than $81 million for a phony investment based on reselling large blocks of tickets to
Hamilton, concerts by singersongwriter Adele and other highdemand events.
“Instead of undertaking a reasonable review” or conducting necessary due diligence of the alleged tainted investment, Tripoint and others “focused on seizing their own commissions and continued to persuade plain- tiffs and apparently others to make even more investments,” alleged Blank’s lawsuit, filed in Manhattan U.S. District Court in New York City.
Tripoint CEO Mark Elenowitz in a formal statement said Blank and the other plaintiffs “have made allegations that they specifically know to be false.”
Elenowitz, the company and co-defendant Michael Boswell, Tripoint’s chief compliance officer, “firmly deny any wrongdoing, and will defend the case vigorously,” the statement said.
Blank headed New York-based Sleepy’s, which had more than 1,050 retail locations in 17 states and the District of Columbia when Houston-headquartered Mattress Firm, the specialty mattress retail sector’s top U.S. company, bought the smaller rival for $780 million in Feb. 2016.
The deal created a specialty bedding giant with approximately 3,500 stores in 48 states, plus 80 distribution centers.
South Africa-based Steinhoff International, a furniture and household goods holding company, bought the combined mattress giant for $3.8 billion in September. Proceeds of the Sleepy’s sale gave Blank, a family trust and trusts linked to the company’s founding family millions of dollars that could be used to pursue new investments.