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$321,000 buys a lot of lap dances.

shadowcat

Atlanta suburb

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A Houston strip club is suing for hundreds of thousands of dollars. But the man they name in the suit claims he didn't make those charges.

'Privilege,' an adult entertainment club in southwest Houston, claims a customer took advantage of the business. That's the basis of an attention-getting lawsuit filed this week in which the club's holding company, Houston KP, LLC, is suing James Jay Beckman and his employer, CIT Group, Incorporated.

According to the allegations, from July 4 until the first week of August this year, the defendants patronized Privilege 13 to 14 times, charging up about $25,000 per visit adding up to more than $321,0000.

The charges were made on an American Express Card. The suit claims the defendant told American Express the charges weren't authorized. Amex refunded the charges.

Privilege claims it lost hundreds of thousands of dollars and its American Express privileges. The club wouldn't comment. KTRK legal analyst Joel Androphy gave us his assessment.

"If somebody excessively ran his bill, then he has a case. That's a different story," he said. "But if these are legitimate charges, and he just doesn't want to pay it, then he's going to be severely damaged in his reputation."

We received this response from CIT: "We had no prior knowledge or involvement in Mr. Beckman's alleged activities. We consider this a personal matter between Mr. Beckman and Houston KP, LLC."

The lawsuit claims the defendants did the same thing at other clubs, but the names of those clubs weren't divulged. Neither the attorneys or defendants or attorneys for Privilege returned our calls.