NESN Lawsuit Accuses Ex-Employee Of Stealing $575,000

BOSTON — New England Sports Network is accusing a former executive of stealing $575,000 in a lawsuit filed this month in federal court in Boston.

In a complaint filed Jan. 7, the regional sports cable network said its former vice president of digital, Ariel Legassa, formed a company with a name identical to one of NESN's regular vendors and wrote 11 invoices from the company to NESN between March 23, 2021 and Jan. 6 of this year, when he was fired. The invoices totaled $625,00, and NESN paid $575,000 before discovering the scam.

Legassa and a spokesperson for NESN were not immediately available for comment Friday morning.

Legassa started work at NESN in September 2019 and was responsible for sourcing, supervising, and approving payment to vendors to work on projects for NESN. The lawsuit against Legassa, of Burlington, CT, formed Alley Interactive LLC (CT) in Connecticut last year. The company had the same exact name as a New York-based software company NESN had hired as a contractor.

"NESN has substantial internal financial controls to guard against fraud and misappropriation," NESN said in its complaint. "Nevertheless...NESN recently discovered that Legassa, abusing his fiduciary position within the company, created that shell company with an identical name to an actual NESN vendor and, through that shell company, improperly converted at least $575,000."

The complaint also says Legassa admitted to the scam in a Jan. 6 phone call with a NESN executive and attorney.