AriZona Iced Tea co-founder John Ferolito is battling his longtime masseuse over an $820,000 Florida home she claims he promised to give her — and a call that was secretly recorded on a Ring doorbell has become a key bone of contention in the case.
Over their decades-long relationship, Ferolito showered Fayssanya “Fay” Pratt and her family with other costly perks, according to court filings and interviews — including buying a car for her mother, paying off the mortgage on one of Pratt’s other properties and covering tutoring bills for her children.
One of Ferolito’s longtime aides said in a sworn affidavit that he also picked up the tab for the family’s ongoing dental bills, “numerous family vacations” and visits to the Hard Rock Casino and Turnberry.
Ferolito himself says in the affidavit he handed Pratt $180,000 to open an investment account and taught her how to invest — money he claims eventually grew to more than $600,000.
Pratt separately told Atlanta Black Star that Ferolito once bought her a new Chevrolet Tahoe after calling her old car a “clunker” and paid for her son’s braces after noticing his crooked teeth.
But Ferolito, 76, insists the Coral Springs house was one gift he never made — even as he acknowledges showering Pratt and her family with other costly benefits over the years.
Pratt, who worked for Ferolito for roughly 23 years as a massage therapist and personal assistant, says the home was promised to her — and claims one of his top aides acknowledged as much while firing her in September 2022.
“That was the boss again, and he has asked me to let you go,” executive assistant Kelly Aldrich said, according to a transcript of a phone call cited by Atlanta Black Star.
“He said that we will sign the house over to you and pay for whatever he’s been doing for the rest of the year.”
In other words, Pratt claims Aldrich was telling her that Ferolito was firing her but would still transfer the house to her and continue the financial support he had been providing through the end of 2022.
The secretly captured conversation could become a major flashpoint in the bitter Broward County court fight.
Ferolito’s lawyers contend Pratt recorded Aldrich on her Ring doorbell system without Aldrich’s knowledge or consent and argue the recording, its transcript and anything derived from it are inadmissible under Florida law.
“Stripped of the recording and its fruits, Pratt is left with her own affidavit and deposition testimony,” Ferolito’s lawyers argued in a Sept. 14 motion for summary judgment.
Ferolito claims the property was instead bought as an investment and that Pratt and her family were allowed to live there only while she worked for him.
His lawyers have produced an unsigned April 2018 lease naming Ferolito as landlord and Pratt as tenant, setting rent at $1 a month and requiring her to pay property taxes and maintenance.
Pratt says that was never their deal.
But Ferolito’s side points to an April 2022 text in which Pratt allegedly asked Ron Cohen, Ferolito’s chief financial officer, to “confirm with BOSS that I did sign the lease agreement years ago before we moved in.”
They also cite cashier’s checks Pratt allegedly used to reimburse property taxes that were marked “2019 RENT,” “Rent 2020,” “PARTIAL RENT YEAR 2021” and “COMPLETED RENT FOR PAYMENT 2021.”
Pratt told Atlanta Black Star she labeled the checks that way because Ferolito told her to.
“I never really understood why,” she said.
The two sides also disagree over who paid for improvements to the home.
Pratt claims she spent close to $100,000 on taxes, repairs, appliances and renovations.
An accountant for Ferolito’s trust claims the trust itself spent $184,613.46 on maintenance, repairs and improvements, excluding the purchase price.
The relationship blew up in 2022 after a dispute over roughly $33,000 in landscaping work at the house, according to Pratt.
She says Cohen accused her of taking advantage of Ferolito during a heated phone call.
Pratt has also accused Cohen in court papers of making sexually explicit comments and inappropriately touching her during her employment.
Those allegations have not been adjudicated, and Atlanta Black Star reported that the judge dismissed the sexual harassment claims from this case and barred them from being presented to the jury.
Aldrich fired Pratt on Sept. 7, 2022 — the same call in which Pratt says Aldrich told her the house would still be signed over.
Aldrich has since said she has “no independent recollection” of making that promise.
Cohen claims he never heard Ferolito promise Pratt the house, and former Ferolito lawyer David Buss says he knew of no such agreement.
Buss claims that in September 2023 Pratt instead asked whether she could buy the property and offered to return the UBS investment account Ferolito had given her in exchange for title.
Pratt disputes that account, claiming Buss was the one who proposed that she use the investment account and financing to buy a house she believed had already been promised to her.
Ferolito is now asking Judge Jeffrey Levenson to throw out Pratt’s counterclaims and order her out of the property.
Pratt wants the court to force him to transfer the house to her or compensate her for what she says she spent and provided in reliance on his promise.
Despite the bitter fight, Pratt told Atlanta Black Star that their July deposition ended on an oddly tender note.
She said Ferolito slid her a chocolate and winked. She slid him back a Werther’s caramel.
“We shouldn’t be here,” she says he told her.
“I know,” Pratt said she replied.
A hearing on Ferolito’s motion for summary judgment is scheduled for Nov. 23.
The Post has sought comment from Pratt, Ferolito and Cohen.
