Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward's venture into the sports bar scene is headed to court, with a former manager saying nearly $1 million in business proceeds is unaccounted for, including $350,000 he says was scammed from an insurance company through fraudulent claims.

The other owners, in turn, have charged that the manager, who is also a co-owner, took more than $18,000 without authorization.

The bar, a popular spot along East Carson Street in the South Side, is called The Locker Room. On occasions, Steelers teammates of Mr. Ward would serve as celebrity bartenders, attracting sports fans and celebrity gawkers.

Nick Lettieri managed the bar on a day-to-day basis until February, when he says he was squeezed out of the deal after he began asking about the accounts, according to court records filed in the case.

Mr. Lettieri's lawyer, Bruce Fox, said he hopes to get Mr. Ward into court, along with co-owner Kimberly Pitts and her husband, Korry Pitts, all of whom have been named in papers filed in Allegheny County court.

Mr. Ward said yesterday that he has nothing to do with the day-to-day operations of the bar and that lawyers for the bar are handling the case.

"The guy made allegations and I really don't know what more to comment on," he said. "We're supplying all the documents to the court. And, like I said, I'm not really worried about it. I don't think there was any wrongdoing in anything."

Lawyers for Mr. Lettieri were in court Tuesday requesting a contempt citation against the bar's managers for failing to produce financial documents after the court ordered them released. They are requesting a hearing for later this month and have threatened to call in not only Mr. Ward, but Steelers Deshea Townsend, Ricardo Colclough and Nate Washington, along with former Steeler Verron Haynes, all of whom Mr. Lettieri said have been regulars at the bar and could have knowledge of what occurred.

The dispute hit the courts this week after attorneys for the bar filed suit against Mr. Lettieri, saying he withdrew more than $18,000 from the bar's account at PNC Bank. The other owners demanded that Mr. Lettieri return the money.

He subsequently asked the court to rule that the money was being held in trust until finances could be sorted out.

In multiple responses to the suit against him, Mr. Lettieri outlined what he alleges is widespread misappropriation of the bar's funds. He says it was highly profitable until February, when a boiler burst, causing a flood. The Locker Room filed an insurance claim for extensive repairs.

"Lettieri became aware that these insurance proceeds payable to the Company exceeded the actual cost of the repairs to the premises by approximately $350,000," according to a court brief filed by Mr. Fox. "He also became aware that the insurance checks were never deposited into the Company's bank accounts at PNC Bank. Instead, they were, somehow, deposited into an account at Dollar Bank controlled exclusively by Korry Pitts, Kimberly Pitts' husband."

The court filing by Mr. Lettieri says that when he brought the matter to the attention of other officials of the company "he was subjected to a process of gradual exclusion from the operation and management of the Company."

Mr. Lettieri's court filings say that during that period when he was shut out of the company, he became aware of other financial irregularities, "most of which centered around Korry Pitts."

They include, he says, the inexplicable drop in the company's four PNC bank accounts from a total of $570,000 to less than $20,000.

He says that after he confronted Mr. Pitts with questions about the disappearance of the insurance payments, "Korry Pitts has physically threatened Lettieri, including death threats, on numerous occasions. Lettieri became concerned that Korry Pitts, with at least the tacit acquiescence of Kimberly Pitts, Hines Ward and the Company's attorney, Thomas Castello, if not their active participation, was absconding with moneys owned by the Company, in which he, as a member, had an interest."

Thomas Castello, attorney for the Locker Room, said yesterday that requested financial documents were filed yesterday. Common Pleas Judge Christine Ward ordered that there will be no disclosure by the parties of the company's private business records. A full-scale hearing into Mr. Lettieri's allegations has not yet been scheduled.