After yesterday’s story on, well, After (no pun intended), the building’s lease-holder Tommy Riccardo reached out to us to refute claims made by After managing partner Thom Svast. At DJOYbeat it is our goal to get you all sides of every story, and given the severity of some of the accusations made by Thom Svast, we thought it only fair to publish Mr. Riccardo’s response.
Riccardo on why the relationship between he and After ended:
“Basically After and Thom Svast came in for a 5-week contract, the contract was up and the reason that we parted ways was because, one, being that Thom didn’t have the money to advertise and I believe that he told us we were going to have a major marketing and promotional campaign—and that never happened. The nights that he said that we did $10,000 nights, that might have happened once or twice.”
In regards to reneging on an agreement with After to pay for half of the DJ booking fees, Riccardo stated:
“The thing with the DJs was true, but I did pay half for his DJ. So he had said that I reneged on the DJs—which I did—and then we re-did what we were going to do and I agreed that we would pay for half of the DJs. Basically what put us over the edge is that our equipment was stolen—I’m not saying that it had anything to do with Thom or his people—it was just very coincidental is that when the guys came in to remove the stuff which was the PA equipment, three of my amps went missing, too. So I’m not accusing anybody, we are investigating it now.”
On the claim that money was owed to PS Sound:
“Yes, I do owe money to PS Sound. I do owe money to PS Sound and I intend on paying them. Listen, I’m a business owner. Business owner—we employ over 94 people. Sometimes checks bounce and we always cover them. We never screw anybody. We’re not in this business to screw anybody over. We do owe After some money, which we’re absolutely paying him money today. It wasn’t about the money owed or anything like that. It was just basically about the operation and the way things were handled. Thom came into my place, we gave him our liquor, we gave him our labor, we gave him our security, we even paid for part of the DJs and Thom walked around like he owned the place. It’s my place, it’s not Thom’s place.”
Ricardo on his foray into nightlife with Equilibrium:
“Actually, you actually did me a favor and so has Thom because all the negative press is actually building up my club Equilibrium. So it doesn’t matter to me. I’ve been in this town for five years. Me and my son have built a roster of columnists that love us and love my son and my son is loved in town. We’re a legitimate, hard-working family and After is trying to bash us because we owed a little bit of money and we’re paying them, as a matter of fact we’re giving them a check today. I never had a problem with paying them. If you look on Alex Clark’s [part of the DJ duo Spacebyrdz, who were residents for After] website—his Facebook, you’ll see that he’s bashing my family and they’re making threatening threats against us and I’ll figure that out on my own. But right now, okay, we’re in the position that we’re ready to go to all the media, we’re ready to go to all the talk shows and tell the truth about what happened at After. Honestly this money being owed is money that’s being paid. That’s not a problem. I don’t bounce checks all over the place like Thom said, OK? And that gets taken up with my attorneys for bashing me where he shouldn’t have. … Now they’re trying to get this whole #AfterArmy after us? This isn’t a joke. Listen, I’m from New York, when you say something, especially in the media that you’re gonna bring a mob of people to my place, what does that say? I have to protect myself! You have to understand something. Now Alex takes that and he puts it on his Facebook and he’s inciting a riot! Now he’s got everybody trying to get together—and I will tell you and you can go to the police! I am going to do, and my security team is going to do everything in their power to protect my family. Believe me! I’m not playing games!”
On the claim that he was bouncing checks:
“I’m telling you right now, you know what? Thom started this, it had nothing to do with moneys or anything. He didn’t pull out, I told Thom to leave, OK? My stuff was stolen and I didn’t blame Thom, but it was the last straw. My son didn’t want it anymore, OK? It was just horrible. At the end Thom came in, there was maybe 50 people a night. I will show you everything that we have to prove to you that they were doing a terrible bar night. I couldn’t do it anymore. … So everything that Thom stated was a lie and I’m not bouncing checks everywhere. Yeah, I’m a businessman and I employ 94 people and sometimes checks bounce, but I always take care of them, always. … I’m going to every media outlet in town, OK? I’m going to tell the truth, I’m going on TV, this is going to be a major media campaign and at the same time we’re going to build up Equilibrium.”
Now that you’ve heard both sides of the story, weigh-in with your thoughts and where you’ll be partying in the comments section below!
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