Dow Jones Hired Strippers

[From The New York Post]  Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, has acknowledged it footed the bill for strippers to entertain its employees and clients.

The surprise admission arrived in response to a suit filed by a former top ad official at Barron's who claims Dow Jones sanctioned liquid lunches and paid for strip clubs and lap dances for clients and co-workers when he worked there in the late 1990s.

Patrick Allocco, who filed the suit, was fired in early 2001 from his job as an eastern ad director at Barron's. Dow Jones execs said he was fired for "abandonment" of his job.

Allocco claims he was dismissed after the company curtailed some of his expenses such as theater tickets for hard-to-get Broadway shows - even though the activities he was fired for were sanctioned and encouraged by his bosses, Eric Cieplik and Gary Holland.

"On occasions too numerous to mention, plaintiff was instructed to use his corporate American Express card and or to take cash advances to pay for strippers and lap dances for the employees of the marketing department," claims the suit.

Allocco said he even paid for a stripper in Barron's offices to celebrate a co-worker's birthday on at least one occasion. Cash advances were used for trips to well-known topless joints including Scores, Stringfellows, Billy's Topless and Camelot in Washington, D.C., claims the suit.

Allocco also said he became known as the guy who could score tickets to hard-to-get plays such as "Victor Victoria."

When he told then-president of Barron's Robert Paradise that the cost of the tickets was over $1,000, he was instructed to "take a cash advance to cover half the cost and to take the other half as a client expense."

He also said that one of his bosses, Eric Cieplik, kept open tabs running at numerous bars in the city, including Turtle Bay Cafe, St. Andrews Pub and O'Lunny's Bar, where secretaries and office workers were frequently encouraged to drink on the company tab.

In its response, Dow Jones, which is headed by chairman and CEO Peter Kann, conceded that it did pay for some of the strip clubs and lunches on the company expense card over a period of years.

But the company still insists it will prevail in its lawsuit. "We believe that Mr. Allocco's case is frivolous and without merit," said a company spokeswoman. "We'll contest the case vigorously, and we're confident that the matter will be resolved in our favor."