The psychotic spinner is no stranger to the courthouse.
More details emerged yesterday about the litigious past of spinning-class grunter Stuart Sugarman, as he promised to press on with a civil suit against a fellow Wall Street alpha-male he accused of slamming him to the ground for making too much noise while working out at an East Side gym.
The civil-suit threat comes after a Manhattan jury rejected his criminal case against Christopher Carter, when they deemed Sugarman’s testimony that the assault left him seriously injured too unreliable to be believed.
In 2003, Sugarman, a senior partner at an investment bank that handles securities and hedge funds, got into a contentious lawsuit with Wellfleet International Ltd., which accused him of stiffing them out of $350,000 in a deal and then folding his company to avoid payment.
Sugarman, 48, settled the case at arbitration, said his attorney Samuel Davis.
In the 1990s, New York judges twice ordered him to pay ex-wife Tara Levine more than $40,000 following their 1992 divorce, court records show. She declined to comment yesterday.
He filed for bankruptcy in 1995. And in 2001 he was ordered to repay $13,650 in back maintenance to the co-op board of a West Side apartment building where he had been living, court documents revealed.
Davis dismissed that, saying, “Like thousands of other New Yorkers, he went through some financial difficulties in 2001.”
Davis said none of the earlier cases had any relevance to the assault.
“They are just not relevant to the case. There is nothing in his past that suggest any history of dishonesty,” Sugarman’s lawyer said.
“He is a good guy. He is a philanthropic guy. He is an honest guy. I think it is unfair to mention this. I don’t think there is anyone out there who would question his business ethics.
“It’s not right to pile on him. He has already taken his lumps,” Davis added.
The spinning-class fanatic – currently a senior managing director at Sunrise Securities Corp. – previously ran Explorer Capital and Yangtze Capital, specializing in expanding investments outside the United States.
Sugarman claimed he suffered an acutely herniated disc in his neck when Carter – angry at Sugarman’s vociferous exhortations of “Great burn!” and “You go, girl!” while exercising – threw him and his spin bike to the ground.