In 2000 along with business partner Jim Pappas was forced to sell 40% of their stakes to The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
In Oct. 24, 2010 I posted a blog entitled. Who is the Michigan Gaming Control Board? Part one.
It focused on the Executive Director Richard Kalm appointed in March of 2007 proceeded by Daniel J. Gustafson who was appointed in 2002. And it was Mr. Thomas Denomme who was Chairman of the MGCB in 2000.
With-in that blog I disclosed that one of the gaming board regulators who was hired in 2001 Patrick J. Devlin had been suspended then fired by Kalm in 2008 supposedly because of behavioral and employment issues and not because he filed two citizens suits in state court seeking to compel enforcement of the state’s liquor licensing laws and the MGCB’s employee qualification rules ( suggested Reading ) .
Patrick Devlin in that suit also questions the board’s approval of an applicant’s bid to buy a stake in a casino, noting the applicant previously had been rejected. The applicant and casino were not named in the suit. My research couldn’t gain the answer of who this Applicant was, that is until Jan.22, 2011 in this Detroit News article.
Chippewa tribe unsure of proposed Romulus casino
Excerpt:
Gatzaros pushed for the state constitutional amendment that created Detroit’s three casinos in 1996. He and partner Jim Papas were originally awarded one of Detroit’s three casino franchises, but the state’s gaming board didn’t grant them a license because Gatzaros had tax problems. They each sold their 40 percent stakes to the tribe in 2000.
Seven years later, Gatzaros was approved by the gaming board to become a minority stakeholder in Greektown Casino, eventually gaining a 2 percent share before the bankruptcy.
So this is who Patrick Devlin was questioning the MGCB about. Ted Gatzaros
So WHY DID THE MGCB APPROVE GATZAROS, when 7 years prior rejected his application and refused him a license. What changed their minds about him?
Another Excerpt from this Det. News article poses another question if you ask some of the Tribes members.
“Gatzaros has a longstanding relationship with tribal leaders, dating to 1987 when they started working on a proposal for a Detroit casino”.
But what kind of longstanding relationship was it? I came across this Tribe Members Blog after Googling Ted Gatzaros name when his name came up as one of the Investors for this Romulus Casino project. Then I was enlightened about his relationship to this Tribe. It was written on Nov. 30, 2010
WHO IS TED GATZAROS? Along with the comments to the Blog.
Greektown businessmen Ted Gatzaros and Jim Papas conspired… with a Maryland businessman to bilk the federal government in a multimillion-dollar loan scheme, a federal prosecutor said in court papers Wednesday.
The government alleges that Gatzaros and Papas defaulted on loans in the early 1990s, then paid a Maryland businessman, William Schainker, to illegally acquire the defaulted loans at a large discount at a federal auction. Schainker then transferred the notes to Gatzaros and Papas, the government said. It said the plan was designed to clean up Gatzaros’ and Papas’ financial problems … LINK HERE
Businessman pleads guilty to illegal loan buyback… William Schainker, 59, a Maryland businessman, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Detroit to helping Greektown Casino founders Ted Gatzaros and Jim Papas repurchase loans Papas and Gatzaros had defaulted on.
LINK HERE
Man fined in loan scheme with ex-Greektown Casino figures – 2004-12-02… A federal judge has leveled a fine against a Maryland businessman and placed him on two years’ probation for defrauding the federal government. This is in connection with loans to former Greektown Casino figures Ted Gatzaros and James Papas.
U.S. District Judge George Steeh on Wednesday accepted a prosecutor’s request that William Schainker, 61, of Chevy Chase be spared imprisonment because of his help with the investigation.
Lynne Weaver
Lynne Weaver said…
decisions do not deserve to be handling our money. Any of them voting in favor of doing business with those known for dirty dealing should be removed before they completely destroy our tribe.
We have a board crafted of shysters to carry the vote their way and they have found some directors to be really easy to sway. I wonder why that is…don’t you?
Juli Pionk said…
- **********************************************************
- As a result of this William A. Schainker was disbarred.
- Bar No. 28480. April 21, 2004. The board recommends that the court disbar Schainker. Schainker was convicted in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division, of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to make false statements and to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 1001, 1341, and 1343, crimes that involved moral turpitude per se, for which disbarment is mandatory under D.C. Code § 11-2503(a) (2001).
- So it is really a wonder that when Gatzaros’s named surfaced with this proposed Romulus Casino is the any doubt why some of this Tribe went berserk? Even though Bernard Bouschor was named in a lawsuit in 2004 by this Soo Tribe. In 2011 seemed to be right back into the thick of things with this Romulus Casino deal.
- I wrote another Blog in Oct. 2010 on why this Tribe lost Greektown.
Only I know more now than I did when I wrote it. This Tribes Crooked Board conspired to steal from their own Tribe with the help of lawyers some hired. And somehow when the Gaming Board decided 7 years later that Ted Gatzaros was worthy of becoming a minority stake holder just prior to this Tribes Bankruptcy and in the end when a fourth man was appointed to the MGCB and a very much needed fourth vote to sealed the deal that allowed Greektown to be taken from This Soo Tribe and handed over to a new Detroit Group. Why wouldn’t a Tribe whose Leadership directed them into a sink hole that they had to sue, then a blast from that Horrid past came back into the picture with Ted Gatzaros.
I guess it would stink to me as well.
Other blogs of Lynn Weaver’s shed some light a little more in depth on all of the corruption within The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. And for the record I was able to gain the fact that Lynn Weaver was being trashed in a Blog herself, for being a member descending from Mackinac- Grand Traverse bands which makes up half of this Soo Tribe. But everything she has written on her own blog site about Bernard Bouschor rang out the absolute truth that I discovered as well in Oct. while researching the facts surrounding why this Tribe really ended up losing Greektown.
Why would any of this tribe want to walk into the exact same situation with Bouschor and an Investor that the 2000 MGCB originally rejected a license to? My God read some history here. I’d still like to know why 7 years later the 2007 MGCB thought him suitable? Maybe somebody should find and ask fired MGCB Regulator, Patrick Devlin.
The Whole Detroit News Jan. 22, 2011 Article.
Chippewa tribe unsure of proposed Romulus casino
And again for the record it has been Jaclyn Tropp who has written all the articles regarding this Soo Tribe. Back in the Summer she wrote a series of four articles that to me rang out how to show this Tribes weaknesses as in they didn’t belong trying to get another Casino going anywhere else after their failure at Greektown.
Did the whole Tribe Fail? Or just the Crooked Board members and their lawyers the tribe had to drag into court. They won the suit against Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, P.L.C.
I can’t answer questions about this Tribes doings or corruption. That will have to be asked of a Tribe Member. But we now know the Vote on the Romulus Casino deal was voted down. No author only the Detroit News Briefs.
Tribe rejects casino plan for Romulus
The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians rejected in a 61-39 percent vote a proposal for the tribe to pursue building a casino in Romulus. The project was to be developed by Winter Park, Fla., developer Mike Sawruk and Detroit businessman Ted Gatzaros who partnered in the tribe’s Greektown Casino in Detroit.
They name only two people as Developers, Mike Sawruk and Ted Gatzaros. I’d like to know who the INVESTORS WERE? Funny Jerry Campbell wasn’t listed as an Investor in this Det. news article. But in the Jan. 11, 2011 article in The News-Herald that vanished soon after it was posted did name Campbell along with Gatzaros as Investors.
In 2008 Campbell was going to invest into Greektown while it was still in Bankruptcy, but that deal was flushed when the MGCB got their fouth vote needed to take Greektown from the Soo Tribe and hand it to Detroit Investors which included Freeman Hendrix as a board member while he was still sitting on Detroit’s Charter.
The MGCB has not disclosed to the Mi. HPBA what it’s decision is going to be on Pinnacle Race Track owner Jerry Campbell. But I know one thing, in 2000 the MGCB denied Ted Gatzaros a Casino License. According to the Detroit News, 7 years later he was approved by the same MGCB. A former employee questioned that decision and was fired as a result of it.
Gatzaros rises from the dead for new Casino deal and the MGCB as fas as I’m concerned the 2007 MGCB knew he was dirty from history when the 2000 board first denied him a License for Greektown in 2000. And the board knew he was just as dirty when they approved him 7 years later prior to The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians Greektown bankruptcy.
How could they not have known?
Michican gaming regulators voice concerns about sale of casino stakes ***** NOTE: Entire Article at bottom.
And they also knew knowing that this Tribe was burnt by their former Crooked Chairman Benard Bouschor who is still for what ever reasons on this Tribes board at present and Ted Gatzaros’s name affiliated with the old Greektown deal that died. That this Tribe would in fact vote down anything to do with this Romulus deal. Again leaving Detroit to solely have their 3 untouched Casinos with no competition anywhere near.
After all wasn’t it Richard Kalm who vocalized his bias for Detroit Casinos in a Free Press article.
The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians recently purchased land near Pinnacle Race Course in Huron Township in western Wayne County. Gaming facilities there or in Port Huron ( Bay Mills – Vanderbilt ) would compete directly for local customers with Detroit’s three casinos, which count on exclusivity to fuel their business. The Detroit casinos are an important source of revenue for the City of Detroit.
Yes we know Mr. Kalm how important the Detroit Casinos are for Detroit. And Obviously YOU.
Who doesn’t think the MGCB Director isn’t happy about this Tribes No Vote raise your hand.
BTW, Pinnacle Race Course Address is 18000 Vining Rd. New Boston, Mi. AKA Huron Twp.
This Race Track isn’t in ROMULUS.
But my question to Jerry Campbell would be why would you get yourself involved with people like this? You have a good name and a good reputation. Why allow yourself to be degraded down to somebody’s else’s low-level. You’re better than this or I would at least hope you are. Gatzaros is business poison, the 2000 MGCB knew it and this Soo Tribe certainly already knew it.
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Sault Tribe member Lynn Weaver’s Blog
http://lynneweaver.blogspot.com/
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Michican gaming regulators voice concerns about sale of casino stakes
Jim Suhr
Wednesday, July 12, 2000 | 8:55 a.m.
DETROIT – State gaming regulators Tuesday put off deciding a plan for two couples to sell their 40 percent Greektown Casino stake, troubled by a provision that could let the founding investors buy back their shares in the virtually finished gambling hall.
Ted Gatzaros, Dimitrios Papas and their wives are divesting their interests in what would become Detroit’s third temporary casino, given a state-mandated investigation that uncovered problems in their backgrounds.
Under a proposal argued Tuesday before the Michigan Gaming Control Board, the couples would sell their 40 percent in effect to the Upper Peninsula’s Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians for more than $200 million over 10 years. The 28,000-member tribe’s stake already is 50 percent. Local investors own the balance.
The catch: the proposed deal would leave the door open for the couple to perhaps reinvest in the casino, something the regulatory gaming board made clear it doesn’t view favorably.
“I am suspicious (about that provision), and I am concerned,” Thomas Denomme, the board’s chairman, told Thomas Kienbaum, an attorney for the couples. “My advice is you take it out and make it a clean sale.
“As long as it’s in there, we’re going to have a hard time” signing off on the transfer, Denomme said.
When Kienbaum countered that he found any suspicion unjustified, Denomme said “you could relieve any suspicion by removing some of this language.”
“If you want a smooth-sailing transaction here, take it out,” he said. “Today’s our day to tell you how we feel in plain English, and that’s how I feel.”
Board member Paula Blanchard called prospects that the Gatzaroses and Papases reinvest in the casino “a real problem.”
The board recessed the matter until Aug. 7, largely to allow its staff and financial advisers to scrutinize the proposal spanning hundreds of pages submitted late last month.
Mike Neiswonger, a spokesman for the couples, said the Gatzaroses and Papases agreed to sell their stakes to hasten the casino’s opening, believing they have a legal right to reinvest later.
“They believed they’d eventually be granted a license,” but saw the licensing process plod along, Neiswonger said. “They believe what they propose would lead to the quickest opening of the casino.”
Neiswonger said the casino could open this fall “if all went smoothly” with licensing, though Denomme said “we should not be held hostage” by the clock or calendar.
If the Papases and Gatzaroses don’t sell their shares, they could be found unsuitable by the gaming board and allowed to recoup only what they originally invested. By selling now, they could get as much as $228 million for the 40 percent stake, not including interest.
After Tuesday’s four-hour hearing, Denomme said the board has let investors in casinos elsewhere in Michigan buy back their stakes on rare occasions, typically amounting to 1 percent. With the Greektown case, he said, “our concern is it’s a huge chunk of ownership” that could be repurchased by the divesting couples.
“If they persist in having that as part of the transfer agreement, it’s going to be very hard for me to approve that proposal,” he said.
Denomme said it was possible the Gatzaroses and Papases could sue over the matter.
With each passing day, Greektown’s $150 million casino falls farther behind its competitors, giving the local MotorCity and MGM Grand gambling halls that opened last year more time to build customer loyalty and costing city coffers additional tax revenue.
archive….End
Notice of March 28 Public Investigative Hearing for Greektown Casino, LLC, appears in Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, Oakland County Press and Marquette Mining Journal (3/14/00).
Citing need to resolve ongoing business transactions that may affect application process, Greektown Casino, LLC, requests adjournment of pre-hearing conference. Board reschedules pre-hearing conference for May 23. Board directs Greektown Casino, LLC, to provide summary of proposed business transactions by April 17, and full documentation of proposed business transactions by May 1 (3/28/00).
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No wonder Patrick Devlin questioned all this. AND WAS FIRED FOR IT.
Unbelieveble
Longshot's Blog 
3 comments:
Charles Forgrave said…