• discussions >
• Front Room

I was drugged': Doctor refuses to pay $135K strip club bill

A prominent heart doctor is trying to skirt $135,000 in credit-card charges at a Manhattan jiggle joint by claiming strip-club staff drugged him, according to a new civil lawsuit.

Scores NY says in its suit that Dr. Zyad Kivarkis Younan “voluntarily” visited the West 28th Street flesh emporium on four occasions in November for “services, food and beverages.”

The 41-year-old Holmdel, NJ, resident first signed his American Express bills, then refuted the charges, claiming “he was drugged by plaintiffs' employees and thus did not authorize the charges,” according to the Manhattan suit filed by Scores on Tuesday.

The doc claimed he wasn't even at the adult playhouse some of the days in question: Nov. 17, 23, 26 and 28, according to court papers.

But Scores says it has irrefutable evidence of Younan enjoying himself at the pleasure palace last fall.

“We have it on tape,” said club rep Steven Sabbeth.

When asked about the drugging allegations, Sabbeth joked, “Within two weeks, he was here four times, so if he was drugged the first time, I guess he liked it.”

On a more serious note, he said, “We're very law-abiding. We're very careful.”

Sabbeth was not able to give a breakdown of Younan's activities at the club, but he said the most popular services include $20 lap dances and private room rentals where men can enjoy one-on-one time with a dancer for up to $1,000 an hour.

“He spent a lot of money,” Sabbeth said. “He was partaking and tipping and drinking.”

The unbridled behavior is not out of the ordinary, Sabbeth said.

“This happens every once in a while, people get out of control with their credit cards, and then they wake up the next morning and realize what they've done,” Sabbeth said.

“They knew it the night before, but I guess it didn't bother them because they were enjoying themselves,” Sabbeth said.

Younan, whose father and twin brother are also doctors, specializes in clinical cardiac electrophysiology at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. He trained at Manhattan's Mount Sinai Medical Center and Philadelphia's MCP Hahnemann University Hospital.

Younan excelled in sports at the private Ranney School, where he was recently inducted into the Panther Athletic Hall of Fame.

The doctor, reached at his office, was with a client and did not immediately return a call seeking comment.