Ads for allegedly fake frozen yogurt company causing headaches for Diamondbacks, other MLB teams

There are ads throughout Chase Field, as there are throughout most MLB stadiums and arenas that house other sports.

But one ad, from one particular company, is causing headaches for the Arizona Diamondbacks and a few other sports franchises. And it happened to have a prominent spot at Chase Field during a memorable time in recent D-backs history.

Sam Blum is a staff writer at the Athletic covering Major League Baseball; he’s investigated this and joined The Show to talk more about it.

Full conversation

MARK BRODIE: So this is all about a froyo company, is that right?

SAM BLUM: Yes, it's a froyo company. Well, to some extent it's about a froyo company. Really, the story is about this one man, Steven Delaportas, who's kind of had a long history of being sued, you know, civil litigation, even criminal investigations against him dating back decades. And he was the CEO, ran this company and ultimately ran it very similarly to a lot of the businesses that he had run previously in his life and left kind of a trail of non-payment lawsuits and people's lives who had been severely impacted.

MARK BRODIE: So the company was called Crèmily and it had, if folks here in the Valley remember, some pretty significant advertising around the pool at Chase Field. You write about how it had a very prominent spot when the Diamondbacks went to the World Series a couple years ago. All the players jumped the fence in right center field, they hopped into the pool, and all you could see in the photos were these signs for Crèmily.

And this was supposed to be sort of a French-style frozen yogurt company. Talk a little bit about this Steven Delaportas. He was brought in to run the company, and it sounds like they didn't really make frozen yogurt at all in large numbers, did they?

SAM BLUM: No, they really didn't. I mean they ultimately were, I think at different times attempting to create a formula secure business partners. You know, this, this man, you know, basically schemed various farms across the country. Most notably, like I went to one in upstate New York called Ronnybrook Farm that had had a, you know, basically business partnership, five-year business partnership with Crèmily that they thought was going to turn them into the next Ben and Jerry's.

You know, this — because the froyo was supposed to be sheep's milk, it was supposed to be keto-friendly, it was supposed to be a little bit different. And you know, that very similarly payments stopped and it nearly ruined the family farm over eight decades financially. So yeah, I mean Steven Delaportas, he was — it was a complicated business.

I don't think that they were ultimately making very much product. And as a result, in the ballpark, the Chase Field, you know, you might have bought Crèmily, but it might have actually just been regular soft serve ice cream. And that was the concern, you know, not just at Diamondbacks ballpark, it was at Angel Stadium as well in Southern California.

The New York Mets had their Women's Day sponsored by Crèmily. Madison Square Garden brought Crèmily in. If you look at the article, there are pictures of the entire, you know, this iconic venue lit up with their logo. ... It was just in kind of an insane year and a half before this whole thing crashed and burned.

MARK BRODIE: So, Delaportas was brought in to run Crèmily by the company's founder. And one of the things that I found so interesting about your reporting was that there seems to be this question of whether she was sort of duped like everybody else, or if she was maybe complicit in what Delaportas was doing.

Were you able to sort of get a sense for that based on the folks with whom you spoke?

SAM BLUM: I think it's possible it's a little bit of both. I think to some extent ... Kylie Schuyler, who's woman you're referring to, she kind of has a history of more legitimate, you know, business practices. You know, her husband — this wasn't in the article — her husband, Doug Hodge, was, was, spent time in prison for that Varsity Blues college admission scandal. So there's some, you know, connection to, I think what you could argue is less-than-ideal activity.

But ultimately, I think she was probably at least entering into this business with, you know, legitimate concept. I mean, the whole idea was that every proceed, every dollar earned was going to be donated to women and girls globally. Which was very vague, didn't really mean much, but that was the initiative.

And I think that aligns with her overall kind of, you know, way of operating and the things she's done in her, in her history. That being said, you know, once lawsuits came, once all these things started falling apart, she really didn't separate herself, at least not in court documents and, you know, not through our reporting. Which we gave her numerous opportunities and asked this question to her and, you know, her representation kind of straight up, you know. So at no point did she distance herself from Steven and what Crèmily was doing.

MARK BRODIE: Well, and we should point out, in addition to Kylie Schuyler, Delaportas, like, basically nobody sort of associated with the company other than some of the employees was willing to talk to you about this.

SAM BLUM: Yeah ... really it was those two. And then the rest of the company, I mean, there were other people, like the lawyers wouldn't talk. And I think some of the other people who had, you know, kind of been high up, who maybe still are in business with Steven, wouldn't talk to us.

But, you know, for the most part, I would say a lot of people, a lot of these employees were very eager to share their story. It was for some people, it was like, you know, you talk to them and it's like, "Man, that was just a weird time in my life."

And for others, it's really been very impactful for them. They have had a hard time getting work. They've, you know, they've been asked in job interviews like, "... Isn't that the scam?" Basically, like, this is, you know, there's a reputation among, among people in the food industry now, I think, and this could be impactful for certain people.

... It stinks for that, for that reason, I mean, the Diamondbacks had a guy named Brendan Cunningham, as mentioned in the story, who's, you know, basically led their marketing department. Crèmily hired Brendan to be a legitimate face of kind of what they were selling. And I don't think Brendan ultimately, I believe, believe he may have filed legal action against Steven at some point after the company collapsed.

But, you know, he was basically supposed to be this kind of legitimate face that could go into major league stadiums and sell the product. And I think that was kind of how they did this. They hired legitimate people who had good paying jobs elsewhere. They offered them a lot of money, offered them stock options, things like that, and then it just never really paid out.