Cablevision’s Madison Square Garden is publicly brawling with New York’s SpongeTech Delivery Systems, which only last year was a darling of the sports advertising world.
MSG sued SpongeTech in January for $430,880, money it claims it is owed for advertisements that ran during Knicks and Rangers games. In response to SpongeTech’s demand that the suit be tossed because the allegations are false, the sports arena publicized e-mails in which SpongeTech executives apologize for missed payments.
“I am again sad and embarrassed by our word not having been our bond,” read one message from SpongeTech CEO Michael Metter to MSG.
The remark was in response to an e-mail from a seemingly exasperated MSG executive who had been promised a $360,000 wire transfer after a check for that amount bounced, according to the documents.
MSG’s lawsuit, filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, claims that the maker of soap-filled sponges wrote bad checks for its ads.
The Mets’ Citi Field also sued SpongeTech in Queens Supreme Court in January for some $300,000 in bounced checks over display ads at the stadium.
Both Citi Field and MSG claim the checks bounced shortly after the Securities and Exchange Commission suspended trading of the company’s stock in October. The company has since been notified by the SEC that the watchdog is gearing up to file civil lawsuits against it and several executives for a myriad of securities violations, although no action has emerged.
Steve Moskowitz, CFO of SpongeTech in an e-mail to The Post yesterday wrote that MSG “has a history of forcing there [sic] employees to lie on there [sic] affidavits,” and pointed to a 2007 news article about sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits against the company.
Moskowitz said SpongeTech has proof that MSG lied in its case and offered to provide the information exclusively to The Post. “I will give it to you the day before it’s filed,” he said. “What will you do for us?” kaja.whitehouse@nypost.com