Hedge fund manager Andrew Barroway is reportedly suing New York Islanders owner Charles Wang for $10 million for reneging on a handshake agreement the two had that would have seen Wang sell the franchise to Barroway.
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According to The New York Daily News, Barroway has brought the lawsuit less than a week after talks between both sides on a potential deal ceased. The report indicates that Barroway and his company NY ICE are suing Wang for going back on a handshake agreement to sell the team to them for $420 million.
Wang reportedly decided to back out after learning that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer intended to buy the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 million from disgraced owner Donald Sterling, who was forced to sell the team after racist comments he made surfaced online.
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The court documents obtained by the publication said that Wang "abruptly refused to proceed to close the transaction and honor the terms" of the agreement the two parties had in place and instead "improperly sought to renegotiate the already agreed upon price."
The report also said that Wang instead started to demand $548 million for the team instead. The Islanders have denied these claims.
"There is no merit to these reports," they told the publication.
Barroway has gone to battle with Wang before, suing his company Computer Associates for violations of the Securities Exchange Act in 1998 on the grounds they artificially inflated revenues among other things. The lawsuit was settled in 2003.
Barroway had showed interest in the New Jersey Devils last year and the NHL is fine with him owning a franchise, but ESPN reports that commissioner Gary Bettman wasn't aware of any type of handshake agreement between the two sides.
Some sources believe that Wang is being unrealistic about the value of the franchise, which hasn't won a playoff series since 1993.
The Islanders broke a five-year playoff drought in the 2012-13 campaign, but the team failed to make the playoffs in 2013-14, going 34-37-11 (79 points).
It's unknown what the future of the franchise is, but with the Islanders moving to Brooklyn next year, there is reportedly interest from other buyers in purchasing the team.
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