The owner of a New York apartment building is suing liberal media queen Arianna Huffington for what he claims is widespread damage to a loft she rented in Chelsea. Huffington rented the showy space as a place to hold parties and entertain business partners and guests visiting the Big Apple.
Building owner Eric Steel claims that Huffington left the 4,400 square foot, seven-story apartment in rough shape, causing $275,000 in damages. He is suing to recover his losses.
According to the lawsuit, destruction ranged from “gouged, stained and otherwise damaged” walls, “scratched, punctured” wood floors, bloodied mattresses, and broken appliances.
The Chelsea loft was designed by noted architect Charles Gwathmey and featured an “irreplaceable” dining room table he designed. It too was damaged, Steel claimed in his suit.
Huffington denies all claims made by the apartment owner.
Huffington said, “Every single claim in this suit is false except the square footage and the address,” in a statement. “Eric Steel, who happily renewed the lease twice and visited the apartment multiple times, is holding onto $93,000 dollars in deposits, which he has refused to return,” she added.
The AOL-Huffington Post boss reportedly paid between $27,000 and $32,000 a month to rent the place for her parties and renewed the lease on the place at least two times.
In 2011, Huffington came under fire from her own bloggers when she sold Huffington Post to AOL for $315 million. HuffPo writers had been toiling for years without making a penny for their work even as Arrianna realized a personal pay day of up to $18 million when she sold out to AOL.
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