Nicholas Cosmo's indoor athletic complex in Hauppauge sold for $3.4M

Long Island Business News, Jun 4, 2009 by David Winzelberg

Alleged Ponzi-schemer Nicholas Cosmo's indoor athletic complex yielded $3.4 million from buyer Coastal Sports at an auction Thursday.

Cosmo had purchased the 38,000-square-foot Hauppauge building for $3.85 million last year and spent another million to transform the former paintball arena into indoor athletic fields.

The building is the most valuable asset in Cosmo's holdings being liquidated by the bankruptcy trustee, Jericho-based Silverman Acampora. It was auctioned by David R. Maltz & Co. of Plainview.

In a statement a Coastal Sports spokesman said the youth soccer training company expects to open in the fall.

In other Agape World developments, bankruptcy trustees want to settle for $2 million of the $5.3 million that Agape had lent to Professional Merchant Advance Capital (ProMac), a cash advance business of which Cosmo owned 20 percent.

Under the agreement, ProMac owners Stephen McDermott and Sharmila Ruder-Amico would return $2 million to satisfy the debt because the company can't pay the full amount.

"...ProMac's books and records further reveal that its current asset base does not lend itself to collecting more than $2 million" reads the motion filed in the Eastern District U.S. Bankruptcy Court last week.

A hearing on the motion to settle is scheduled for June 23 at 2 p.m. in the Central Islip federal courthouse.