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Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/41290
IN BUSINESS COURTS MOB EXPERIENCE DEVELOPER SUES TROPICANA By Steve Green senior staff writer The Tropicana has been dragged into the legal disputes among investors and creditors of the Las Vegas Mob Experience at the resort. Jay Bloom, one of the developers who claims he's been wrongly pushed out of parent company Murder Inc., charged in a counterclaim in one of the many Mob Experience lawsuits that the attraction is struggling in part because the Tropicana has failed to fully assist in its marketing efforts. The claim says just 350 people per day were going through the experience through June, well below initial numbers of 700 per day in March. "Tropicana failed to honor its obligations under its on-property marketing commitments, upon which (investors) relied upon in making the decision to invest millions of dollars COURTS COUNTRY CLUB SAYS IT'S CASH-FLOW POSITIVE By Steve Green senior staff writer The newly bankrupt Spanish Trail Country Club says it anticipates generating enough cash to pay operating expenses while its case proceeds. A hearing is set in US Bankruptcy Court for Nevada on the club's routine "first day" motions seeking approval to continue paying its 53 employees, utility bills and other operating expenses. With such approvals, the club and its 27-hole golf course can remain open and honor tee times and clubhouse event reservations. The club filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization to block COURTS MGM FILES SUIT OVER GOLD STRIKE TRADEMARK By Steve Green senior staff writer MGM Resorts International is suing an Internet poker operator charging trademark infringement. MGM filed suit in federal court against WorldPokerRewardsClub.com Company Inc. and John George of Blaine, WA The suit says the defendants have websites called goldstrikepoker.com and goldstrikepoker.net and have registered user names containing the Gold Strike name on social media networks Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. The use of the Gold Strike name infringes on MGM Resorts' trademark covering its Gold Strike resorts in Jean and Tunica, MS, the lawsuit alleges. The suit says attorneys for MGM in July asked the defendants to cease their allegedly infringing activities and that they voluntarily transfer the domain names to MGM Resorts. The suit says George agreed to change the name of his website to "Gold Rush Poker,'' but the defendants refused to turn over the website domain names because they are valuable and demanded that MGM buy them. MGM also alleges that after the defendants were confronted, they filed applications with the US Patent and Trademark Office to obtain trademarks covering the marks "Gold Strike Poker'' and "Goldstrikepoker.com.'' That was "a fraudulent attempt to establish some rights in the marks,'' MGM alleged. A request for comment on the suit was placed with the defendants. a takeover by lender Hermitage Management LLC, which says it's owed $16.1 million and initiated foreclosure proceedings after Spanish Trail stopped making payments on its mortgage in August 2010. In a court declaration, Farhang Rohani, the club's general manager and chief operating officer, said the nonprofit company has about $124,000 cash on hand—which is now subject to control of the court. Use of that money, as well as revenue received after the bankruptcy, is crucial to Spanish Trail achieving an "effective and orderly reorganization" of its business, he said. The club hasn't yet disclosed how it intends to reorganize and Hermitage Management hasn't indicated if it will cooperate or if it will ask the bankruptcy court for permission to proceed with the foreclosure. Rohani said the club is in default on a $15 million loan it took out in April 2007 to improve the golf course and clubhouse. Records show the loan was at 6.52 percent interest and required monthly payments of about $136,000. The club projects revenue will exceed operating expenses by $176,000 through the end of the year, the filing said. in improvements in the Tropicana leasehold," the claim says. For example, Bloom claims, Tropicana failed to place Mob Experience tent cards in its hotel rooms and didn't advertise it on its marquee. The Tropicana has not yet responded in court, and officials said the property had no immediate comment. But it's likely the Tropicana has its own beef with the Mob Experience. That's because contractors who built the experience and say they hadn't been paid $4.5 million, as of August 11, have filed liens against the Tropicana. "We are aware that these liens constitute an event of default under our credit agreement and we are currently in discussions with our lender for, among other things, the temporary waiver of this event of default," Tropicana said in its second quarter financial report. Bloom made the allegations about the Tropicana in a counterclaim he filed in a lawsuit filed against him August 4. That suit was filed by lenders Vion Operations LLC and Strategic Funding Source Inc., claiming that before his departure from Murder Inc., Bloom had looted the company of more than $1 million and had misstated the financial condition and prospects for the company in part by submitting inflated visitation projections. That lawsuit was on top of six others filed by investors and creditors since 2010, alleging bills were unpaid or investment agreements weren't honored. Bloom attorneys charged that Vion Operations LLC, Strategic Funding Source Inc., Strategic Capital Management LLC and two individuals, Louis Ventre and Andrew Reiser, have been scheming against Bloom.