Miami Dolphins say promoter of ‘fan cruise’ stiffed team out of hundreds of thousands of dollars

The Miami Dolphins were forced to cough up more than a quarter million dollars owed to MSC Cruises after the promoter of a Dolphins “fan cruise” failed to pay the cruise line as promised, the NFL team charged in a federal lawsuit filed Friday.

Not only did defendants First Class Cruises LLC and its president Jeffrey Nahom fail to remit to MSC fares that passengers prepaid, the company also stiffed 35 former players recruited for the cruise out of hundreds of thousands of dollars of promised sponsorship benefits and appearance fees, the suit alleges.

Meanwhile, Nahom treated himself and his family to the nicest cabins on the MSC Seascape when the seven-day fan cruise sailed from Miami early this month, the Dolphins are charging.

The lawsuit states that Nahom and First Class Cruises entered into a sponsorship agreement in June 2022 to organize the “Miami Dolphins Fan Cruise.” The event’s website bills it as an opportunity for fans to “Interact, engage, and get to know” legends like Dan Marino, Mark Duper, and Larry Csonka in “themed events, excursions, competitions, parties, meet & greets, photo opportunities” and more.

In early March, as the departure date loomed less than a month away, the team discovered that First Class Cruises and Nahom had failed to turn over to MSC $251,372 for 61 staterooms that fans had paid for in advance, and $96,004 for 35 staterooms that former Dolphin players were promised, the suit says.

To avert cancellation of the cruise, the team says it agreed to pay the outstanding costs. Nahom told Dolphins officials that he took “full responsibility for the situation I’ve put the Dolphins in” and assured the team that he’d “pay the Dolphins back every penny,” the complaint states.

As run by the promoter, the cruise got off to a “rocky start” after departing Miami on April 2 and generated “many complaints,” the suit states. While “many bookings” were marketed as including alcoholic beverage packages and free WiFi, Dolphins fans discovered that those had not been paid for, the suit states. That forced the team to pay $17,739 to ensure that the passengers could access the promised amenities during the cruise, the Dolphins claim.

But the promoter and his family cruised in luxury, the lawsuit says.

“The Dolphins Parties further discovered that — instead of using the funds that [First Class Cruises] had collected to secure fan and player staterooms, or fulfill FCC’s other contractual obligations to the Dolphins Parties — Nahom had booked for himself and his family, as well as other FCC personnel, MSC Yacht Club staterooms, the most expensive, luxurious accommodations onboard MSC’s cruise ship,” the team said.

Nahom did not immediately respond to a voice mail left at his Boca Raton-based businesses, which public records identify as both First Class Vacations and First Class Cruises. The Dolphins’ attorney, Melissa C. Pallett-Vasquez of the Miami-based firm Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod LLP, did not respond to an email asking why the team signed a sponsorship deal with First Class Cruises in light of past controversies involving Nahom and his companies.

On April 10, the day the cruise returned to Miami, the Dolphins notified Nahom that it considered him in default for failing to pay an outstanding cash payment of $280,000 and a $300,000 appearance fee as required by the contract, according to the suit. The team also demanded reimbursement of payments made to MSC on the promoter’s behalf, the suit says.

In all, the lawsuit seeks to recover $945,115, plus damages, interest, costs, and expenses that the Dolphins say Nahom and First Class Cruises owes.

Reviews of the cruise posted on social media were mixed.

On Facebook, Candy Powers Fik praised former players who took time to chat with her and her husband, including O.J. McDuffie, Tony Nathan and Otto Stow.

But Richard Gibson wrote a long post stating that the cruise, which he said was attended by about 700 Dolphins fans, was “very, very ... very disorganized with long lines (many over an hour) to just about all of the daily events with the 35 Fins players aboard.”

Rebecca Winters referred in a different post to “miscommunications, lack of communication and outright inaccuracies” that she called “astounding.” The promoters failed to provide itineraries for the cruise’s events until the day before the ship sailed, she wrote.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg with respect to the issues the fans have. Everything from room issues, billing issues, package purchases not fulfilled...the list goes on and on,” Winters wrote.

A man posting under the name of the promoter, Jeff Nahom, whose profile page identified him as a “participant” on the private Miami Dolphin Fan Cruise Facebook group, responded to Winters’ comment, saying it was “not factual.” Referring to Nahom by name, he wrote that “Jeff Nahom and FCC will soon be exonerated” and asked Winters to join a Zoom call last Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m.

“I have nothing but respect and love for each and every passenger who put out their hard-earned money for the Inaugural Dolphins fan cruise,” the man posting under the name Jeff Nahom wrote. “I will not rest until my name is cleared and each and every passenger is completely satisfied. Things happen for a reason, and everyone will be ecstatic in the end.”

But after the scheduled time for the Zoom call passed, Winters posted, “No surprise to me at all that the Zoom meeting has been cancelled.”

“Nahom” replied, “Do you know why it was cancelled? You don’t need to answer it. It will be rescheduled as soon as possible. As mentioned, for reasons beyond my control.”

Gibson and another poster noted that Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino stayed on the ship for two days before departing for good when it arrived in Nassau, Bahamas.

Chris Rhodes said he paid $6,800 and was “supposed to get an opportunity” to meet Marino “but it never happened.”

But Toni Loftiss said she met Marino the first night “and he was very nice!”

The Dolphins Fan Cruise isn’t the first NFL-related cruise involving Nahom and First Class Cruises that generated controversy, according to published reports.

In February, the Washington Times reported that the NFL’s Washington Commanders cancelled a planned fan August cruise promoted by Nahom and his firm “because of significant changes ... to the original offering, including cruise line, destinations and dates.”

In 2021, the Philadelphia Eagles provided refunds to fans after Philadelphia’s NBC affiliate complained about long waits for refunds after a Nahom-promoted fan cruise was cancelled in 2020 because of the COVID pandemic.

Before First Class Cruises was founded in 2019, Nahom was president of First Class Vacations from 2006 to 2020, according to the Florida Division of Corporations’ online database. First Class Vacations became an “inactive” company in September 2021, but a website operating under that name remains active.

On the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ database of licensed sellers of travel, the status of both First Class Cruises and First Class Vacations — each identified as operating out of the same Boca Raton address — is listed as Closed — Out of Business.

First Class Cruises registered with the Division of Corporations in 2019 as a Las Vegas-based foreign profit corporation with the same Boca Raton mailing address as listed at the Department of Agriculture site. But its active status was revoked in 2021 for failing to submit an annual report, the division’s website shows.

In 2021, TCA Global Credit Master Fund LP won a $1.36 million default judgment against Jeff and Rebecca Nahom, First Class Vacations and Firefly Travel Corp., according to the Broward County Clerk of Courts website. Jeff Nahom was identified as a registered agent of both companies.

According to the Palm Beach County Clerk of Court’s website, the North Palm Beach-based law firm Cohen, Norris, Wolmer, Ray, Teleman, Berkowitz & Cohen filed suit against Nahom in 2020 alleging he failed to pay a $15,229 legal bill for services agreed to orally in 2018.

Although the firm filed a notice of settlement in July 2020, a year later it reopened the case, alleging that Nahom made three payments of $1,000 each, then failed to make the rest of the promised payments, according to court documents. That October, Nahom was found in contempt of court for failing to pay the remainder of the money owed, court records show.

First Class Vacations has an F rating on the Better Business Bureau’s website. The site has nine complaints from customers who said they haven’t seen refunds from trips cancelled in 2020 because of the pandemic.

Responding to one of the complaints in June 2020, an anonymous spokesperson for the company stated that it was owed many refunds from travel providers and planned to “start making refunds [to customers] within the next few months,” adding, “we can’t guarantee that we’ll be able to make the full refund in one payment as we have several other customers to refund.”