The endless legal troubles of the Friars Club are raging on — with former boss Michael Gyure filing a new suit against board members over what he claims was “a frivolous and vindictive” suit filed against him last year.
The papers are about as entertaining as a Borscht Belt routine.
But there is a notable detail in the new suit, in which Gyure claims the club went out of its way to harass him by claiming he owed millions in an attempt to get him to drop his first suit, which asked for money he claimed the club owed him.
The new suit claims Gyure and his family “first found out about the Friars’ [lawsuit] when a reporter for the NY Post repeatedly called [Gyure’s] wife, who is a doctor, while she was working during surgery in the operating room.”
The papers continue, “When she finally picked up, the NY Post reporter wanted a quote from [Gyure] about the Friars suing [him] for [$2.3 million] for grand larceny, embezzlement and other things.” That’s when “she nearly fainted,” as the couple didn’t know “anything about the suit.”
Gyure’s suit also says his wife and son suffered “extreme stress and anxiety” about the suit — which the club’s board later dropped — and that they had to move the kid to a UK school.
The legendary 55th Street private club hired Gryure in 2012. In 2019, he pleaded guilty to filing false tax returns, which hid from the IRS nearly half a million dollars paid to him by the club. But he stayed at his post there until 2020.
Gyure’s first suit concluded this August, when it was ruled the club owed him $1.68 million.
In the latest suit, filed by legal eagle Robert Hantman, he is asking for $5 million for emotional distress and other allegations.
In April, we reported that the club went up for sale amid a debt crisis. The 125-year-old institution has counted Frank Sinatra, Joan Rivers and Jimmy Fallon among its members.
A Friars rep didn’t immediately get back to us.
Dean of the Friars Club, attorney Arthur Aidala commented, “This is nothing new, he’s just adding to his current lawsuit.” He called the new allegations, “merely another attempt by a disgruntled employee to attack the institution.”