A billionaire who famously fired a slew of senior writers at Sports Illustrated during a 2024 business dispute is drawing controversy again — as his decades-old shopping destination ShopHQ has been accused of selling goods without paying suppliers, The Post has learned.
Morris & David’s diamond bracelets, rings and necklaces have sold briskly on ShopHQ during the past year – but the New York City jeweler claims it hasn’t received a penny for the $200,000 in bling thanks to the company owned by Manoj Bhargava, the billionaire founder of 5-Hour Energy drinks.
ShopHQ suppliers allege that under Bhargava — whose company Arena Group did a stint as publisher of Sports Illustrated in which the Group gutted its staff and Bhargava was accused by the brand’s owner of behaving like a “gangster” — the 35-year-old home shopping TV network began stiffing them early last year.
“I’ve been on the air with them for 25 years and had a good run with them making over $150 million in sales,” said Samuel Behnam, owner of Samuel B, a jeweler based in Great Neck, Long Island. “I have lost some money — $30,000. Right now, I have not done any new business with them.”
In what turned out to be the last days on cable-TV packages nationwide, ShopHQ last spring began laying off hundreds of employees — and stopped paying its suppliers.
That was after ShopHQ had launched an ill-fated push online that included video-on-demand and live streams hosted by influencers.
“Think awkward Instagrams mashed with shopping cart pop-ups,” Sophia Reynolds wrote on the blog Business Divers.
“Social selling is brutal when you’re up against Amazon Lives and TikTok shops with Gen Z hosts who grew up on this stuff,” Reynolds wrote.
ShopHQ went dark altogether in April.
Ahead of the surprise shutdown, Yeroshalmi claims his business in New York City’s Diamond District had shipped some 500 baubles worth nearly $200,000 to ShopHQ’s Minnesota headquarters.
Yeroshalmi had frequently traveled to ShopHQ’s studios where he went on the air to hawk Morris & David’s designs, but that all stopped when ShopHQ abruptly went dark.
For months thereafter, Yeroshalmi and his lawyer called and emailed ShopHQ demanding payment to no avail for his handcrafted pieces.
Those have included a $9,995 tennis bracelet and $1,795 rings mounted with diamonds arranged into shapes of hearts and clovers.
In October, Bhargava relaunched ShopHQ after transferring its control from a company he owns called IV Media to the Arena Group — the company that had briefly published Sports Illustrated. Terms of the transfer weren’t disclosed.
Arena Group and Bhargava did not respond to requests for comment.
The publicly traded company, which Bhargava controls with a 65% stake, also owns TheStreet, Parade and Men’s Journal. It acquired ShopHQ for an undisclosed amount.
IV Media shut down the company last year without filing for bankruptcy protection. Months later, ShopHQ was relaunched on the web and started selling goods again.
Those included jewelry made by Morris & David — which as of Tuesday had just 14 pieces remaining on ShopHQ’s site.
The catch: Yeroshalmi still hasn’t been paid for any of the merch that has been sold.
“I was very angry to see they are selling my goods but refusing to pay me,” Yeroshalmi said. “I look at the site every day.”
ShopHQ’s relaunch with Arena Group is not lost on Yersoshalmi.
“It’s the same owner,” he said. “He’s just hiding from us.”
Bhargava “is a deep pocketed owner and obviously has the ability to come current on ShopHQ’s obligations if he wanted to,” said distressed asset expert Adam Stein Sapir. “There are consequences when word gets out in the vendor community.”
Now, Yeroshalmi’s 37-year-old business — whose clients have included the former Shah of Iran — is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, he said.
“I owe a lot of people money for that merchandise,” he told The Post.
Georgia-based beauty wholesaler Y&E Enterprises sued IV Media for $51,000 in “unpaid fees for products sold through the ShopHQ network,” according to a lawsuit filed in Michigan state court in August.
IV Media denied any wrongdoing, according to a court filing.
ShopHQ was one of the pioneers of TV home shopping. It began as ValueVision in 1990 then morphed into ShopNBC and EVINE Live before retaking the ShopHQ moniker in 2019.
At its peak, it generated $500 million in revenues and was broadcast in some 80 million homes, rivaling QVC and HSN, according to reports.
But e-commerce has taken a toll on the TV shopping niche. ShopHQ now persists on social media, YouTube and on its ShopHQ website.
“Over the years there were late payments and and some of the management changed but in most cases it was a good business,” Behnam told The Post. “Over the last few years, we had to insure our merchandise. If we didn’t, we would have added 5% to 10% to the cost of our jewelry.”
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