Sunday, July 25, 2010
"Rabble Rousin'" Rich Bergeron Showcased On Knoqout.Com Radio
If you haven't listened to the Folks over at Knoqout.com yet, you're missing out on some classic coverage of the Mixed Martial Arts industry. They recently interviewed FNU's own Rich Bergeron about the ongoing XYIENCE SCANDAL Rich began breaking in 2006. Click on the image below to access the show page and hear the full story behind THE ENRON OF MMA.
THE NEW ZUFFA MYTH: THE UFC'S INFLATED $1 BILLION VALUE IS BUNK
By: Rich Bergeron
IIIIIIIIt's time..... to get real when it comes to the Royal Family of the UFC. and expose some of the misleading stories circulating about the value of the UFC being over $1 billion. This billion dollar price tag is pure speculation. The perpetuation of this figure in the media has been hard to track to a primary source, but I blamed Forbes Magazine first:
" It was the latest fightfest staged by Ultimate Fighting Championship, a Las Vegas company that started as a smutlike fight club that's now worth maybe $1 billion and is drawing competitors like flies to blood."
Take a gander at that M word before the $1 billion. Somehow from this article, the $1 billion figure grew legs and stuck. For more than two years people have been treating it like gospel as if the value and assets of the UFC are officially worth $1 billion.
CNBC, a station not necessarily known for winning Pulitzer Prizes, had this segment on this past January where the host uses a "let's just make it up" figure of $1.25 billion.
Listen for Dana when he says the UFC is worth whatever anyone is willing to pay for it. Listen for Lorenzo Fertitta dismiss the idea the company is in massive debt. There's been nearly $500 million of those financial instruments taken out already on the face value of the UFC. Lorenzo disputes the debt total only because some of that debt is being paid down by the UFC's revenue. Maybe he likes to call it by the catchy "bank facility" term to confuse people into thinking it's not really debt, but that doesn't change the fact that it exists.
It took two years for that first Forbes piece to actually produce any kind of sale, and even then it was only for a small percentage in the company. MMA Payout printed the details of the sale, including an article quoting the Forbes piece as estimating the billion dollar figure.
Leave it to all the experts at Yahoo's AssociatedContent.com to change my mind about Forbes. This article claims the UFC bought PRIDE for about 80 million dollars in addition to carrying the headline that the UFC is worth "Over One Billion Dollars." Some Yahoo under the profile Brian Y might be the first person on record to use the billion dollar figure considering the post was published Published 7/31/2007. So he got the PRIDE PRICE WRONG and the billion dollar price tag might even be his invention.
Check out another MMA Payout piece detailing the real financial structure of the UFC HERE.
The fact is, anyone who would outright buy the UFC would be assuming a whole lot of debt, whatever the real debt figure is. With the economy still "uncertain" in the eyes of the experts, that billion dollar price tag should be going down, but the folks at CNBC just jacked it up when the Abu Dhabi deal went through. All of this is based on nothing, no financial projections or actual figures, just speculation and supposed offers that never actually materialized. This is the world of MMA journalism we live in when so few writers question the so-called facts spouted by big media like Forbes and CNBC. Don't believe the Hype. If you think the UFC is really, honestly worth a billion dollars, maybe you went to the Dr. Evil school of accounting:
IIIIIIIIt's time..... to get real when it comes to the Royal Family of the UFC. and expose some of the misleading stories circulating about the value of the UFC being over $1 billion. This billion dollar price tag is pure speculation. The perpetuation of this figure in the media has been hard to track to a primary source, but I blamed Forbes Magazine first:
" It was the latest fightfest staged by Ultimate Fighting Championship, a Las Vegas company that started as a smutlike fight club that's now worth maybe $1 billion and is drawing competitors like flies to blood."
Take a gander at that M word before the $1 billion. Somehow from this article, the $1 billion figure grew legs and stuck. For more than two years people have been treating it like gospel as if the value and assets of the UFC are officially worth $1 billion.
CNBC, a station not necessarily known for winning Pulitzer Prizes, had this segment on this past January where the host uses a "let's just make it up" figure of $1.25 billion.
Listen for Dana when he says the UFC is worth whatever anyone is willing to pay for it. Listen for Lorenzo Fertitta dismiss the idea the company is in massive debt. There's been nearly $500 million of those financial instruments taken out already on the face value of the UFC. Lorenzo disputes the debt total only because some of that debt is being paid down by the UFC's revenue. Maybe he likes to call it by the catchy "bank facility" term to confuse people into thinking it's not really debt, but that doesn't change the fact that it exists.
It took two years for that first Forbes piece to actually produce any kind of sale, and even then it was only for a small percentage in the company. MMA Payout printed the details of the sale, including an article quoting the Forbes piece as estimating the billion dollar figure.
Leave it to all the experts at Yahoo's AssociatedContent.com to change my mind about Forbes. This article claims the UFC bought PRIDE for about 80 million dollars in addition to carrying the headline that the UFC is worth "Over One Billion Dollars." Some Yahoo under the profile Brian Y might be the first person on record to use the billion dollar figure considering the post was published Published 7/31/2007. So he got the PRIDE PRICE WRONG and the billion dollar price tag might even be his invention.
Check out another MMA Payout piece detailing the real financial structure of the UFC HERE.
The fact is, anyone who would outright buy the UFC would be assuming a whole lot of debt, whatever the real debt figure is. With the economy still "uncertain" in the eyes of the experts, that billion dollar price tag should be going down, but the folks at CNBC just jacked it up when the Abu Dhabi deal went through. All of this is based on nothing, no financial projections or actual figures, just speculation and supposed offers that never actually materialized. This is the world of MMA journalism we live in when so few writers question the so-called facts spouted by big media like Forbes and CNBC. Don't believe the Hype. If you think the UFC is really, honestly worth a billion dollars, maybe you went to the Dr. Evil school of accounting:
Saturday, July 24, 2010
INTERESTING FERTITA FAMILY AND STATION CASINO LINKS
Penn National Gaming not expected to bid on Station properties
Station Casinos Inc. sold for $1.7 billion (1998)
GAMING CHIPS: Fertitta sings Station Casinos' praises to Wall Street (1999)
RICHARD RAINWATER
New Titans of Las Vegas Reinvent Old Formula
INTERESTING LORENZO FERTITTA INTERVIEW ABOUT THE UFC'S EXPANSION
UFC OWNERS DEFENDANT IN XYIENCE LAWSUIT
Deep in the Heart of Texas: A look Back at the Texas Connection to the 80s Savings and Loan Scandal
Peter Brewton wrote a compelling book years ago, published in 1992. The non-fiction THE MAFIA, THE CIA AND GEORGE BUSH (1992) by Brewton is about the Former President George Bush Sr.'s connections to the 80s Savings and Loan scandals and other corruption involving the CIA and bankupting shell corporations. The book about the subject references the Fertitta and Maceo Mafia families. Frank Fertitta, Jr., Tillman Joseph Fertitta, and Sam Maceo are referenced specifically. The huge network of businessmen, government officials, and varied unsavory characters in the underworld who were implicated in that massive 80s scandal are all chronicled on THIS PAGE.
Here's an interesting video describing some pretty deep stuff from Brewton that is all interconnected to the Fertitta family's current foothold in Texas and the family's historical connections and power base there. This video also speaks to their Modus Operandi of destroying companies for personal profit. It's worth an hour of watching to get the real story on all these shady characters who perpetrated this scandal:
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
STATION CASINOS, FERTITTA ENTERPRISES, KIRK SANFORD AND A BUNCH OF ZEROES
By: Rich Bergeron
It's been a while, but I created this nice new blog and wanted to formally update the Xyience saga. Right now there has been no action in my own legal matters in the adversary case in more than 6 months. I'm preparing a few filings of my own to change that.
Meanwhile, I've been reading up on what's going around about all the old "Usual Suspects." While the UFC is seemingly still doing smashingly well, Station Casinos is facing resistance from all fronts. Whether it is the culinary union with a bone to pick (pun intended) or the company's major creditors, adversaries and critics are popping up everywhere to claim the casino chain is being shady. Just check out a few of these links if you don't believe me:
NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD COMPLAINT AGAINST STATION CASINOS AND OTHER FILES
Station Casinos bondholders renew interest in suing over deal
Propco/Opco: Playing With the House’s Money?
Bankrupt Casino Goes On With Fireworks as Usual
This is just a small sampling of what I've been reading out there about Station Casinos and the "stalking horse bidder" ploy the Fertittas will use to get the best out of this deal at auction, just like they did for Xyience.
Consider this: When Xyience went bankrupt there was a stalking horse bidder for that company, too. What was that company's name???
GOOD THING THE INTERNET REMINDED ME IT WAS MANCHESTER CONSOLIDATED CORP, WHO "bought" THE COMPANY FOR $15 MILLION.
Over the course of the bankruptcy there were a lot of name changes. The company that was the chief lienholder of Xyience going into the BK process was a company dubbed Zyen, LLC when Fertitta Enterprises General Manager Bill Bullard signed the paperwork in 2007. When Manchester walked into the picture, the name became MANZEN. Then it appears Manchester's backers defaulted on the purchase, so it looks as if Fertitta Enterprises, through Zyen, LLC outright owns the company now. Check out these listings from the Nevada corporate entity search engine:
http://nvsos.gov/sosentitysearch/CorpDetails.aspx?lx8nvq=2ryhJA1g38vr4wHvjZ4vJA%253d%253d&nt7=0
http://nvsos.gov/sosentitysearch/CorpDetails.aspx?lx8nvq=N2lDhJztZVB8V0F%252bccSz1w%253d%253d&nt7=0
Gordon and Silver is Gregory Garman's firm. Garman (image below) is the main attorney in my case for Fertitta Enterprises:
"Manzen" only has one manager now: Zyen
And who manages Zyen? BILL BULLARD AND FERTITTA ENTERPRISES:
http://nvsos.gov/sosentitysearch/CorpDetails.aspx?lx8nvq=w2mQRKtvYIQG5%252bRhxnaqMA%253d%253d
Meanwhile, Xyience is accordingly in "default."
http://nvsos.gov/sosentitysearch/CorpDetails.aspx?lx8nvq=n5MCm0RnmZ2bAWvCkO5bRg%253d%253d
What now looks obvious on paper should have been so obvious from the beginning when I was trying to warn of the conflict of interest involved in the Fertittas owning Xyience. I tried to stop the bankruptcy process before it got too far underway, but at that point I had too little legal experience. Still, my Motion to Suspend the Bankruptcy is true Nostradamus-quality stuff looking back now and comparing it to a more experienced legal mind's take on things.
The Fertittas always hid behind a smaller, more obscure company to do their dirty work with Xyience, but now it's clear who owns everything. The fog is clearing, and the fraud will be exposed in the long run.
Yet, without a few key players like Adam Frank and Kirk Sanford, the Fertittas and their GM William Bullard would not have been able to take control of things in Xyience's darkest hour. Adam Frank signed the bogus declaration that got the whole complaint against me started in Nevada. Frank and Sanford met with me in NYC prior to UFC 78 in Newark, NJ. This was after we had this conversation:
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO XYIENCE Co-CEOS ADAM FRANK AND KIRK SANFORD TELL RICH HIS WEB-SITE IS A GREAT RESOURCE ON XYIENCE
Sanford and Frank both pulled off crucial moves that helped sink any hopes the shareholders had of retaining any interest in the company after the Fertittas put their cash in. Frank seemed fully aware of the "Scorched Earth" policy advocated by Sanford and discussed at length during our meeting in Times Square back in November of 2008. Someone on the inside at Xyience found out about my meeting and sent me series of emails that broke the case wide open for me, detailing how plans were made to destroy the company piece by piece. I was bombarded with emails warning me about Frank and Sanford's master plan when I got back from the UFC trip. These dispatches had plenty of facts and insider information exposing the ongoing fraud. Tracing the motives of the main parties who perpetrated it all became much easier over the next few months.
Eventually Kirk Sanford's troubles at his former company, Global Cash Access, would become public knowledge when the Arizona authorities issued a scathing report about the company's troubled past with "mis-coding" issues related to credit card transactions and commissions owed to casinos that were never paid. So, it seems Sanford and his friends were bringing too much heat. Those still close to Sanford that still remained had to be ousted.
Then, Sanford set out to create a new GCA called "Sightline Payments." Here's an interesting advertising post for the company: Sightline Payments: Bunch of Zeros.
Well, I know they've got at least one zero, and his name is Kirk Sanford. He is a slick scam artist who is pegged accurately in circulating complaints about his character outside of the Arizona report. He even went as far as acting like an outsider looking in on the fraud parade he was the grandmaster of at GCA. He actually turned around and filed a ridiculous multi-million dollar lawsuit against his former employer. He claimed GCA's promise not to do business with Sanford and his friends was done as a deliberate attempt to smear his name so as to hinder him from developing a competing company. As if Sightline was going to sprout up overnight into a multi-billion dollar conglomerate? What dream world is Kirk Sanford living in, or what drugs is this guy on?
Kirk Sanford and his crooked track record would have been exposed one way or another, and GCA's willingness to distance themselves from him wasn't the only nail in the coffin. There's a thing called Google you might not be aware of, Kirk. Do a simple search for Kirk Sanford on any search engine. How far do you have to go to find links to his whole fraudulent history? And that's not even giving any creedence to the gossip saying he's a drunk to boot. I suppose you have to drink a great deal of alcohol to be so completely dishonest and deceptive to such good people.
The depth of that kind of conniving is really astounding to me. It's been such a long and painful process to prove everything, but it's all there now in the public eye. Yet, still, people like Kirk Sanford are able to go on and do business like nothing ever happened. Fertitta Enterprises is able to waltz right in and take control of Xyience, the company that sponsors their cash cow: THE UFC. They're able to claim bankruptcy even though the family itself is worth billions. The Fertittas are meanwhile still flying on their private jets, enjoying their lavish lifestyle, and filling up their deep pockets any way they can. The Fertittas found a way to cash in on bankruptcy with Xyience, and now it's obvious that they are trying to duplicate that whole process with Station Casinos.
When will justice be done? What will it take for a wise judge to step up and say enough is enough with this scam after scam mentality? How many people have to be hurt in the long run before the corruption stops?
When the wheels are greased, they don't squeak. Something tells me the Fertittas can be true bastards all their lives. They get a free pass to never be held accountable for their ruthless business practices. Just the mantra of their mob association and lineage is usually enough to keep them safe from getting truly busted. Nothing will get in their way, and they will envision and execute larger schemes that screw more people. It's inevitable that greed and power corrupts, and this is one brotherhood that is built on greed.
Perhaps the only saving grace in the long run will come when some of their fortune has to be handed back over to the victims they swindled to get it. The 18th of July, 2010 marks the 3rd anniversary of the initial filing of Xyience's $25 million defamation suit against me. I've done a lot since then to fight back and fight for the shareholders who lost family trust funds, college funds for their kids, and retirement income they needed to stay afloat. I've done my best to keep telling the story and keep fighting the legal fight no matter what. It's been a while, and I've had a bit of a break from it all, but now I'm back, and I'm not letting up until the job is done on all fronts.
It's been a while, but I created this nice new blog and wanted to formally update the Xyience saga. Right now there has been no action in my own legal matters in the adversary case in more than 6 months. I'm preparing a few filings of my own to change that.
Meanwhile, I've been reading up on what's going around about all the old "Usual Suspects." While the UFC is seemingly still doing smashingly well, Station Casinos is facing resistance from all fronts. Whether it is the culinary union with a bone to pick (pun intended) or the company's major creditors, adversaries and critics are popping up everywhere to claim the casino chain is being shady. Just check out a few of these links if you don't believe me:
NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD COMPLAINT AGAINST STATION CASINOS AND OTHER FILES
Station Casinos bondholders renew interest in suing over deal
Propco/Opco: Playing With the House’s Money?
Bankrupt Casino Goes On With Fireworks as Usual
This is just a small sampling of what I've been reading out there about Station Casinos and the "stalking horse bidder" ploy the Fertittas will use to get the best out of this deal at auction, just like they did for Xyience.
Consider this: When Xyience went bankrupt there was a stalking horse bidder for that company, too. What was that company's name???
GOOD THING THE INTERNET REMINDED ME IT WAS MANCHESTER CONSOLIDATED CORP, WHO "bought" THE COMPANY FOR $15 MILLION.
Over the course of the bankruptcy there were a lot of name changes. The company that was the chief lienholder of Xyience going into the BK process was a company dubbed Zyen, LLC when Fertitta Enterprises General Manager Bill Bullard signed the paperwork in 2007. When Manchester walked into the picture, the name became MANZEN. Then it appears Manchester's backers defaulted on the purchase, so it looks as if Fertitta Enterprises, through Zyen, LLC outright owns the company now. Check out these listings from the Nevada corporate entity search engine:
http://nvsos.gov/sosentitysearch/CorpDetails.aspx?lx8nvq=2ryhJA1g38vr4wHvjZ4vJA%253d%253d&nt7=0
http://nvsos.gov/sosentitysearch/CorpDetails.aspx?lx8nvq=N2lDhJztZVB8V0F%252bccSz1w%253d%253d&nt7=0
Gordon and Silver is Gregory Garman's firm. Garman (image below) is the main attorney in my case for Fertitta Enterprises:
"Manzen" only has one manager now: Zyen
And who manages Zyen? BILL BULLARD AND FERTITTA ENTERPRISES:
http://nvsos.gov/sosentitysearch/CorpDetails.aspx?lx8nvq=w2mQRKtvYIQG5%252bRhxnaqMA%253d%253d
Meanwhile, Xyience is accordingly in "default."
http://nvsos.gov/sosentitysearch/CorpDetails.aspx?lx8nvq=n5MCm0RnmZ2bAWvCkO5bRg%253d%253d
What now looks obvious on paper should have been so obvious from the beginning when I was trying to warn of the conflict of interest involved in the Fertittas owning Xyience. I tried to stop the bankruptcy process before it got too far underway, but at that point I had too little legal experience. Still, my Motion to Suspend the Bankruptcy is true Nostradamus-quality stuff looking back now and comparing it to a more experienced legal mind's take on things.
The Fertittas always hid behind a smaller, more obscure company to do their dirty work with Xyience, but now it's clear who owns everything. The fog is clearing, and the fraud will be exposed in the long run.
Yet, without a few key players like Adam Frank and Kirk Sanford, the Fertittas and their GM William Bullard would not have been able to take control of things in Xyience's darkest hour. Adam Frank signed the bogus declaration that got the whole complaint against me started in Nevada. Frank and Sanford met with me in NYC prior to UFC 78 in Newark, NJ. This was after we had this conversation:
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO XYIENCE Co-CEOS ADAM FRANK AND KIRK SANFORD TELL RICH HIS WEB-SITE IS A GREAT RESOURCE ON XYIENCE
Sanford and Frank both pulled off crucial moves that helped sink any hopes the shareholders had of retaining any interest in the company after the Fertittas put their cash in. Frank seemed fully aware of the "Scorched Earth" policy advocated by Sanford and discussed at length during our meeting in Times Square back in November of 2008. Someone on the inside at Xyience found out about my meeting and sent me series of emails that broke the case wide open for me, detailing how plans were made to destroy the company piece by piece. I was bombarded with emails warning me about Frank and Sanford's master plan when I got back from the UFC trip. These dispatches had plenty of facts and insider information exposing the ongoing fraud. Tracing the motives of the main parties who perpetrated it all became much easier over the next few months.
Eventually Kirk Sanford's troubles at his former company, Global Cash Access, would become public knowledge when the Arizona authorities issued a scathing report about the company's troubled past with "mis-coding" issues related to credit card transactions and commissions owed to casinos that were never paid. So, it seems Sanford and his friends were bringing too much heat. Those still close to Sanford that still remained had to be ousted.
Then, Sanford set out to create a new GCA called "Sightline Payments." Here's an interesting advertising post for the company: Sightline Payments: Bunch of Zeros.
Well, I know they've got at least one zero, and his name is Kirk Sanford. He is a slick scam artist who is pegged accurately in circulating complaints about his character outside of the Arizona report. He even went as far as acting like an outsider looking in on the fraud parade he was the grandmaster of at GCA. He actually turned around and filed a ridiculous multi-million dollar lawsuit against his former employer. He claimed GCA's promise not to do business with Sanford and his friends was done as a deliberate attempt to smear his name so as to hinder him from developing a competing company. As if Sightline was going to sprout up overnight into a multi-billion dollar conglomerate? What dream world is Kirk Sanford living in, or what drugs is this guy on?
Kirk Sanford and his crooked track record would have been exposed one way or another, and GCA's willingness to distance themselves from him wasn't the only nail in the coffin. There's a thing called Google you might not be aware of, Kirk. Do a simple search for Kirk Sanford on any search engine. How far do you have to go to find links to his whole fraudulent history? And that's not even giving any creedence to the gossip saying he's a drunk to boot. I suppose you have to drink a great deal of alcohol to be so completely dishonest and deceptive to such good people.
The depth of that kind of conniving is really astounding to me. It's been such a long and painful process to prove everything, but it's all there now in the public eye. Yet, still, people like Kirk Sanford are able to go on and do business like nothing ever happened. Fertitta Enterprises is able to waltz right in and take control of Xyience, the company that sponsors their cash cow: THE UFC. They're able to claim bankruptcy even though the family itself is worth billions. The Fertittas are meanwhile still flying on their private jets, enjoying their lavish lifestyle, and filling up their deep pockets any way they can. The Fertittas found a way to cash in on bankruptcy with Xyience, and now it's obvious that they are trying to duplicate that whole process with Station Casinos.
When will justice be done? What will it take for a wise judge to step up and say enough is enough with this scam after scam mentality? How many people have to be hurt in the long run before the corruption stops?
When the wheels are greased, they don't squeak. Something tells me the Fertittas can be true bastards all their lives. They get a free pass to never be held accountable for their ruthless business practices. Just the mantra of their mob association and lineage is usually enough to keep them safe from getting truly busted. Nothing will get in their way, and they will envision and execute larger schemes that screw more people. It's inevitable that greed and power corrupts, and this is one brotherhood that is built on greed.
Perhaps the only saving grace in the long run will come when some of their fortune has to be handed back over to the victims they swindled to get it. The 18th of July, 2010 marks the 3rd anniversary of the initial filing of Xyience's $25 million defamation suit against me. I've done a lot since then to fight back and fight for the shareholders who lost family trust funds, college funds for their kids, and retirement income they needed to stay afloat. I've done my best to keep telling the story and keep fighting the legal fight no matter what. It's been a while, and I've had a bit of a break from it all, but now I'm back, and I'm not letting up until the job is done on all fronts.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
ACCESS DENIED: Fertitta Friendly Global Cash Access May Lose Arizona License
By: Rich Bergeron
Arizona's gaming authorities recently took a bold stand against a company called Global Cash Access by filing a notice of intent to deny state certification for the merchant services company, which has suspiciously tight connections with Station Casinos and Fertitta Enterprises. Most news reports about the Arizona developments barely scratch the surface and can't fully quantify the WHOLE REPORT.
The bottom line? This is a big domino to be falling at this moment in time and this juncture in the history of Station Casinos.
The timing couldn't be worse for the Fertitta family as their casino empire steams toward bankruptcy despite one extension after another given to the struggling company by the banks and lenders they owe. Now, it seems their friendly bedfellows from Global Cash Access (GCA) are in a heap of trouble, and more has been revealed through an intensive investigation into how the company was run under the control of Former GCA CEO Kirk Sanford, also a central figure in the Xyience bankruptcy scandal I have been writing about here.
I met with Kirk Sanford myself at a Times Square restaurant just prior to UFC 78 in Newark, NJ. At the time he was Co-CEO of Xyience and had just been ousted from Global Cash Access due to an emerging scandal related to casino payout discrepancies. He specifically used the term "scorched Earth" to describe his plan to bankrupt Xyience.
As it turns out from the timetable emerging in new documents, at the time of that meeting Sanford and GCA were allegedly involved in a massive mis-coding scandal as well as a scheme to defraud casinos of bonuses owed to them. Though the new paperwork does not reveal which particular casino properties GCA allegedly denied due bonuses to, clearly Fertitta Enterprises was impressed by these GCA converts for some reason, and Station Casinos extended their contract with GCA even after the scandal leaked out.
It would ultimately take a great deal of GCA Founder Karim Maskatiya's money and all of Former GCA CEO Kirk Sanford's cunning to perpetrate the Xyience bankruptcy. Karim Maskatiya's nephew Omer Sattar and former GCA executive Kathryn Lever (still with GCA to this day) also made the Xyience transition and played roles in the bankrupting of the company.
The big question I find myself asking over and over again is WHY did Fertitta Enterprises bring these GCA folks in to bankrupt Xyience? There are only two possible answers in my mind:
1.) Fertitta Enterprises officials may have been conscious of the GCA skimming operation and impressed by it, and they needed similar skills to bankrupt Xyience through the perfect group of scapegoats.
.....or.....
2.) Fertitta-owned Station Casinos was on the list of casinos GCA skimmed from, and company officials were so upset that they forced the GCA rejects to pay their penance through bankrupting Xyience for them.
Looking at the whole risk and reward setup, there's no other explanation in my mind for the GCA and Fertitta Enterprises partnership. If you go to my ENRON OF MMA PAGE you can read about why the UFC needed to keep Xyience viable long enough to get a huge loan package and create a middle of the mat bidding war for potential UFC sponsors. Yet, they also needed to make their involvement in Xyience as limited as possible so as not to raise conflict of interest eyebrows. This is why they needed a few devoted fall guys to take key positions, guys who would be really compelled to do this dirty work and take all the risks involved. Yet, why these fall guys? What made GCA so special, and why risk the backlash of hiring folks so fresh off a scandal?
Global Cash Access perhaps came to be tied to the UFC and Xyience because criminal minds think alike. Consider the fact that Frank Fertitta, Junior is the on-paper CEO of Fertitta Enterprises. Yet, Frank Junior has been kept away from Station Casinos operations by his associations in the past with known organized crime figures. The Nevada Gaming Commission would rather Frank Junior's unclean past stay buried. It is widely reported that Frank Fertitta Junior helped operate a massive Vegas skimming operation glorified in the movie "Casino."
Frank Junior's history is fascinating, but his new hobby is even more intriguing. Fertitta Enterprises may not have all that much to do with Station Casinos, but it does healthy consulting work to help other casinos get started all over the country. No matter what controversy is stirred up, the folks behind Fertitta Enterprises seem to be able to squeak unwanted developments through on technicalities wherever they go.
The Fertitta family wields incredible power and influence in the Casino industry, and it shows. Even the Fertitta-led suggestions that a pre-packaged bankruptcy of Station Casinos would be the best way to go have been met by very little criticism, if any. It is my personal opinion that the Xyience bankruptcy was a trial run for the Station Casinos pre-packaged collapse. The Fertitta family has promised to put $244 million into the reorganization pot for Station Casinos, and despite the company's struggles, Frank Fertitta III just bought a $28 million home in Orange County, CA's Emerald Bay. Station Casinos just financed one of the largest 4th of July fireworks displays in Vegas history to boot.
Don't forget things are only so bad for Station Casinos because the Fertitta Brothers went on an overzealous expansion spree resulting in too much overhead and not enough income. Also, like a teenager with his first credit card, they hid the problem by pursuing loan after loan and credit facility after credit facility. The latest estimates put the company in debt more than $5 billion.
the Arizona investigation is mind blowing as far as the conclusions that could be drawn from the associations between GCA, Fertitta Enterprises, Xyience, the UFC, and Station Casinos. This latest GCA bombshell could be the straw that broke the camel's back with Station Casinos, and it could raise some regulator eyebrows in Nevada. Ironically enough, a witness to the Xyience collapse recently informed me that the scheme to bankrupt Xyience was primarily the work of "the two Franks." This report made a great deal of sense since Frank Junior and "Frankie Three Sticks" are really consumed in many ways by the Casino industry business and lifestyle. Meanwhile, Lorenzo Fertitta has over the years been more partial to his work with the UFC and recently left Station Casinos to help Dana White expand the UFC.
Having such intimate knowledge of the casino operations, "the two Franks" should have known it if the GCA Executives were bilking them. These are two men known for their shrewd business practices and sharp minds.
So how did this whole Xyience bankruptcy plan get hatched and why did all these folks end up working together? The exact manner in which all these "usual suspects" came together under a common banner is really an unknown at this point, but their basic motivations seem plain as day now that these new GCA documents have been revealed.
It seems to me we have a classic case of "like father, like son" going on here.
Frank Fertitta Junior never went to jail for his part in casino skimming or any other organized crime endeavor he took part in over the years. Like the "Teflon Don" John Gotti, nothing stuck to Frank Junior, and he was allowed to ride off into the sunset untainted by a prison record and able to buy his first casino for just a buck as the legend is told. Frank Junior's buddies rotted in jail while he built his fortune in gaming and created a dynasty he could pass onto his sons.
Frank Fertitta III had to take the reigns at an early age when his father had no other choice but to pass the buck. Like his father, maybe Frank III devised a new-wave skim with help from GCA, or maybe he and his father muscled in on the GCA scam and took a percentage.
Either way, even a tenuous association of the Fertitta family with what looks to be a massive and purposely designed and perpetrated electronic skimming operation executed by GCA is troubling to say the least. The fact that Fertitta Enterprises would provide ousted GCA officials immediate positions in the soon-to-be-bankrupted Xyience adds more fuel to the conspiracy fire. There are a great deal of whys to be asked in this context.
Looking from the outside in, there is only one logical conclusion as to why all these entities and individuals were perpetrating this massive fraud together. It was all about the money, of course, and while all the loosely associated businesses owned by these individuals were doing well on their own, they could do better conglomerated. They would do even better than that working together under the radar as if they were still being operated by completely separated and unrelated entities and/or individuals.
These culprits had to scatter the blame and obscure the ownership connections as much as they could, and the pattern emerging now shows that they were successful at getting away with these tactics for a long time. If you look closely you can see all the lines of connectivity between these businesses, but on paper and from a distance the names are all different and the associations are hidden. The casual observer doesn't pick up on it.
Global Cash Access made recent moves to further distance itself from GCA Co-Founders Karim Maskatiya and Robert Cucinotta, both having emerged in recent months as suspects playing integral roles in the massive conspiracy run through the company and other offshoots owned by Cucinotta and Maskatiya. The most involved scheme allegedly netted in excess of $26 million based on fraudulent fee rigging by the company. The Arizona license denial paperwork claims GCA officers were not only conscious of the fraud but actively worked to conceal it, knowing that the fine would be minimal if caught in the act.
BREAKING DOWN THE DOCUMENTS
The Arizona Notice leaves room for Global Cash Access to contest the conditions for denial and prove that they are a new and improved entity, but the sheer weight of the allegations included in the document are staggering and might possibly be insurmountable.
In a release issued by GCA officials about the notice, the language is purposely vague:
"The notice summarizes the basis for the department's intention and alleges that GCA, its founding stockholders and certain of GCA's management undertook actions that demonstrate that GCA is not suitable under the department's standards to act as a provider of gaming services to Native American tribes conducting gaming in Arizona," Global Cash said in the 8-K regulatory filing.
The company also harps on the stipulations that make this move by Arizona gaming regulators a preliminary one and not really a final say, explaining that they will fight for their state certification:
"The notice provides GCA with the right to an informal settlement conference as well as a formal hearing before an administrative law judge in Arizona. GCA intends to seek the holding of the informal settlement conference prior to July 15, and the holding of the formal hearing, if necessary, as soon as possible thereafter. In the meantime, absent further action by the department that prohibits GCA from doing so, GCA intends to continue its operations in Arizona in the ordinary course of business," Global Cash said.
"GCA takes the notice and the allegations made therein very seriously. GCA believes that it has taken appropriate actions during the prior 20 months that will permit GCA to fully demonstrate that it should be considered suitable for certification by the department. Many of these actions involve the termination of GCA's relationships with certain affiliated parties and have been previously publicly communicated and provide the basis for GCA's belief that GCA is in fact suitable to act as a provider of gaming services to Native American tribes conducting gaming in Arizona," the release further explains.
The Arizona report goes beyond the alleged actions involved in the perpetration of the skimming operation. Regulators also allege a conscious plan to deceive gaming regulators in Michigan in 2004 and in Arizona in 2005 by not disclosing all the required information about the mis-coding issues:
"GCA deprived a regulatory agency of material information needed to make an informed suitability determination," the Arizona report said of the Global Cash case in Michigan. Company founders Karim Maskatiya and Robert Cucinotta "both attempted to mislead the investigators to hide GCA's interchange fee fraud and their involvement in it," the Arizona report says.
Above all other allegations, charges of Maskatiya and Cuccinotta failing to disclose their questioning in the murder of Maskatiya's wife are most shocking. Here is the text of an Oakland Tribune article printed at the time of the Maskatiya murder:
=====================================
Oakland Tribune March 24, 1982
Police rule out burglary as motive in murder
Fremont- Police said Tues the fatal shooting of Laila Maskatiya was not the result of a burglary in her home because there were no signs of forced entry and nothing was taken.
Detective Dan Fuller said no motive has been established in the slaying, and there is no suspect.
Maskatiya's husband, Karim, told police he arrived home from work at 7:30 Monday evening and found his 29 year old wife in the bedroom in their $350,000 home on Guadalupe Terrace.
She had been shot twice in the head with a hand gun and several empty cartridges were found near the body. Police said the couple's 4 year old son slept through the shooting.
============================================
The Arizona documents say, "Police detectives questioned both Maskatiya and Cucinotta regarding the murder. Both were read their Miranda rights. The detectives felt that Maskatiya and Cucinotta gave inconsistent statements and did not cooperate with the investigation. They also felt that Maskatiya knew, but would not reveal, the identity of the murderer," the Arizona report said.
Yet, both men answered 'no' when asked by Arizona regulators if they had ever been questioned by a law enforcement agency, the report went on to explain.
The Arizona Gaming Department said Maskatiya and Cucinotta were on the GCA board of directors until June 2008, but resigned six weeks after being interviewed by the department. It says they continue to hold more than 25 percent of the company's stock. However, an SEC filing dated July 7, 2009 indicates Cucinotta holds no voting rights and seemingly has no control or major stock value anymore in regard to GCA.
In February, 2009 documents filed with the SEC, Maskatiya and Cucinotta both still retained more than 9 million shares in GCA. Yet, while it appears that Cucinotta may be on his way to being completely muscled out of the company he co-founded, Maskatiya unloaded 2,768,800 of his own company shares at a rate of $6.25 each as recently as a month ago (6/10/09).
In a section of the report called "ongoing matters of concern," the Arizona regulators say:
==> Global Cash Access has never acknowledged or taken any action in regard to its wrongdoing.
==> Global Cash Access has continued contacts with people and companies involved in the Visa fee fraud.
==> The former Global Cash Access principals failed to disclose information about the murder investigation to regulators in Arizona and Mississippi.
==> Cucinotta and Maskatiya failed to disclose other information including their ownership of various companies.
==> Global Cash continues to have problems with payments of fees to casinos and with payments to casino patrons.
==> Global Cash principals had contact with gaming regulators that created an appearance of impropriety.
"GCA has committed a theft, fraud and concealment," the Arizona report alleges. "It has conspired in these actions with (related company) USA Payment Systems. It has demonstrated a willful disregard for compliance with gaming regulatory authorities and has misrepresented and concealed material facts, documents and information in its dealings with the department and others."
"Casino vendors providing electronic fund access must be reputable, honest, diligent and effective. GCA has proven itself to be none of these," the report said. "Allowing GCA's continued participation in gaming in Arizona damages the public's trust in Arizona casinos and casino regulators. Casinos cannot properly operate where patrons continually suspect or assume they are being cheated, and regulators are assumed to be either involved or incompetent."
In other words: Who wants to play a game everyone knows is rigged? It seems fitting that Arizona has the designation AZ, because for Global Cash Access Arizona could be the first on an A to Z list of officials and operations who may soon 'Just Say No' to the type of underhanded tactics GCA is generating a reputation for.
It is a new era in America as the recession revealed some of the worst fraudulent transgressions against honest taxpayers and shareholders. Bernie Madoff might be the biggest of all the frauds, but he was certainly not the only massive con man involved in the economic collapse. He was not the only one making money off misrepresenting his business practices. GCA appears to be a company that grew fat off the same spirit of fraudulent activity, never worrying about getting nailed with the petty fine. They jobbed the system and got away with it, but they still expect to hold the public's trust. Arizona may only represent a small percentage of GCA's worldwide business operations, but this kind of taint could make lots of other dominoes fall.
Taking a closer look at current operations at GCA, it is clear that even if the company ousts Maskatiya and Cuccinotta from direct public roles with the company, GCA will still be intimate with the other companies these accused frauds also run and/or retain principal positions in. Consider the full text of another SEC filing from earlier this year, indicating some possible behind-the-scenes infighting going on at the company:
Item 1.02. Termination of a Material Definitive Agreement.
On February 13, 2009, Global Cash Access Holdings, Inc. (the “Company”) received written notice from USA Payments of the termination of the Amended and Restated Agreement for Electronic Payment Processing, dated as of March 10, 2004, by and among Global Cash Access, Inc., USA Payments and USA Payment Systems (the “Agreement”). The Company disputes the alleged breaches of the Agreement upon which the notice of termination was based, as well as the right of USA Payments to terminate the Agreement.
To the Company’s knowledge, Karim Maskatiya and Robert Cucinotta directly or indirectly hold significant ownership interests in, and serve on the boards of directors of, USA Payment Systems and USA Payments. Messrs. Maskatiya and Cucinotta are former members of the board of directors of the Company, and to the Company’s knowledge, they collectively hold approximately 23.6% of the Company’s outstanding common stock. At the time that the Company entered into the Agreement, Messrs. Maskatiya and Cucinotta were members of the Company’s board of directors and controlled a majority of the outstanding equity interests in the Company.
Pursuant to the Agreement, USA Payments and USA Payment Systems performed for the Company electronic payment processing services relating to credit card cash advances, point-of-sale debit card transactions and ATM withdrawal transactions, including transmitting authorization requests to the relevant networks or gateways, forwarding transaction approvals or denials to the Company, and facilitating the settlement of all funds in connection with approved and consummated transactions. Pursuant to the Agreement, USA Payments and/or USA Payment Systems were subject to a service level guarantee; were required to enter into agreements with card associations, networks, gateways and financial institution sponsors necessary to provide services to the Company; were entitled to fixed monthly fees plus volume-based transaction fees; and, subject to limited exceptions, were prohibited from providing similar services to third parties in the gaming industry.
This Agreement was to expire according to its terms on March 10, 2014. In its notice of termination, USA Payments alleged that the Company breached the Agreement due to two technology issues involving one of the Company’s other business partners. The Company has worked diligently and closely with the affected business partner to ensure that all necessary technology remediation has been performed. USA Payment Systems and USA Payments have acknowledged their obligation pursuant to the Agreement to continue to provide services to the Company during a 180-day transition period. The Company disputes the right of USA Payments to terminate the Agreement. If this dispute is resolved with the mutual agreement of the Company and USA Payments, the Company may continue to receive services under the Agreement or a successor agreement with USA Payments or USA Payment Systems. If the Company and USA are unable to resolve the dispute, the Company will transition to another provider of electronic payment processing services in the 180-day transition period. To prepare for the potential need to transition to a new provider, the Company is already engaged in discussions with an alternate provider.
So it seems USA Payment Systems sought to separate from GCA rather than the other way around. Perhaps this was a tit for tat response to the company trying to shut out Cucinotta. At any RATE (pun intended), whatever decision Arizona ultimately makes regarding GCA could completely transform the merchant services industry. If the appropriate attention is paid to this disaster, the needed regulation and oversight to prevent a repeat of this behavior could save billions of dollars in bogus fees in the long run.
To learn more about the GCA, Fertitta, Zuffa, & Xyience scandal you can check out XYIENCESUCKS.COM or my other stories here.
Arizona's gaming authorities recently took a bold stand against a company called Global Cash Access by filing a notice of intent to deny state certification for the merchant services company, which has suspiciously tight connections with Station Casinos and Fertitta Enterprises. Most news reports about the Arizona developments barely scratch the surface and can't fully quantify the WHOLE REPORT.
The bottom line? This is a big domino to be falling at this moment in time and this juncture in the history of Station Casinos.
The timing couldn't be worse for the Fertitta family as their casino empire steams toward bankruptcy despite one extension after another given to the struggling company by the banks and lenders they owe. Now, it seems their friendly bedfellows from Global Cash Access (GCA) are in a heap of trouble, and more has been revealed through an intensive investigation into how the company was run under the control of Former GCA CEO Kirk Sanford, also a central figure in the Xyience bankruptcy scandal I have been writing about here.
I met with Kirk Sanford myself at a Times Square restaurant just prior to UFC 78 in Newark, NJ. At the time he was Co-CEO of Xyience and had just been ousted from Global Cash Access due to an emerging scandal related to casino payout discrepancies. He specifically used the term "scorched Earth" to describe his plan to bankrupt Xyience.
As it turns out from the timetable emerging in new documents, at the time of that meeting Sanford and GCA were allegedly involved in a massive mis-coding scandal as well as a scheme to defraud casinos of bonuses owed to them. Though the new paperwork does not reveal which particular casino properties GCA allegedly denied due bonuses to, clearly Fertitta Enterprises was impressed by these GCA converts for some reason, and Station Casinos extended their contract with GCA even after the scandal leaked out.
It would ultimately take a great deal of GCA Founder Karim Maskatiya's money and all of Former GCA CEO Kirk Sanford's cunning to perpetrate the Xyience bankruptcy. Karim Maskatiya's nephew Omer Sattar and former GCA executive Kathryn Lever (still with GCA to this day) also made the Xyience transition and played roles in the bankrupting of the company.
The big question I find myself asking over and over again is WHY did Fertitta Enterprises bring these GCA folks in to bankrupt Xyience? There are only two possible answers in my mind:
1.) Fertitta Enterprises officials may have been conscious of the GCA skimming operation and impressed by it, and they needed similar skills to bankrupt Xyience through the perfect group of scapegoats.
.....or.....
2.) Fertitta-owned Station Casinos was on the list of casinos GCA skimmed from, and company officials were so upset that they forced the GCA rejects to pay their penance through bankrupting Xyience for them.
Looking at the whole risk and reward setup, there's no other explanation in my mind for the GCA and Fertitta Enterprises partnership. If you go to my ENRON OF MMA PAGE you can read about why the UFC needed to keep Xyience viable long enough to get a huge loan package and create a middle of the mat bidding war for potential UFC sponsors. Yet, they also needed to make their involvement in Xyience as limited as possible so as not to raise conflict of interest eyebrows. This is why they needed a few devoted fall guys to take key positions, guys who would be really compelled to do this dirty work and take all the risks involved. Yet, why these fall guys? What made GCA so special, and why risk the backlash of hiring folks so fresh off a scandal?
Global Cash Access perhaps came to be tied to the UFC and Xyience because criminal minds think alike. Consider the fact that Frank Fertitta, Junior is the on-paper CEO of Fertitta Enterprises. Yet, Frank Junior has been kept away from Station Casinos operations by his associations in the past with known organized crime figures. The Nevada Gaming Commission would rather Frank Junior's unclean past stay buried. It is widely reported that Frank Fertitta Junior helped operate a massive Vegas skimming operation glorified in the movie "Casino."
Frank Junior's history is fascinating, but his new hobby is even more intriguing. Fertitta Enterprises may not have all that much to do with Station Casinos, but it does healthy consulting work to help other casinos get started all over the country. No matter what controversy is stirred up, the folks behind Fertitta Enterprises seem to be able to squeak unwanted developments through on technicalities wherever they go.
The Fertitta family wields incredible power and influence in the Casino industry, and it shows. Even the Fertitta-led suggestions that a pre-packaged bankruptcy of Station Casinos would be the best way to go have been met by very little criticism, if any. It is my personal opinion that the Xyience bankruptcy was a trial run for the Station Casinos pre-packaged collapse. The Fertitta family has promised to put $244 million into the reorganization pot for Station Casinos, and despite the company's struggles, Frank Fertitta III just bought a $28 million home in Orange County, CA's Emerald Bay. Station Casinos just financed one of the largest 4th of July fireworks displays in Vegas history to boot.
Don't forget things are only so bad for Station Casinos because the Fertitta Brothers went on an overzealous expansion spree resulting in too much overhead and not enough income. Also, like a teenager with his first credit card, they hid the problem by pursuing loan after loan and credit facility after credit facility. The latest estimates put the company in debt more than $5 billion.
the Arizona investigation is mind blowing as far as the conclusions that could be drawn from the associations between GCA, Fertitta Enterprises, Xyience, the UFC, and Station Casinos. This latest GCA bombshell could be the straw that broke the camel's back with Station Casinos, and it could raise some regulator eyebrows in Nevada. Ironically enough, a witness to the Xyience collapse recently informed me that the scheme to bankrupt Xyience was primarily the work of "the two Franks." This report made a great deal of sense since Frank Junior and "Frankie Three Sticks" are really consumed in many ways by the Casino industry business and lifestyle. Meanwhile, Lorenzo Fertitta has over the years been more partial to his work with the UFC and recently left Station Casinos to help Dana White expand the UFC.
Having such intimate knowledge of the casino operations, "the two Franks" should have known it if the GCA Executives were bilking them. These are two men known for their shrewd business practices and sharp minds.
So how did this whole Xyience bankruptcy plan get hatched and why did all these folks end up working together? The exact manner in which all these "usual suspects" came together under a common banner is really an unknown at this point, but their basic motivations seem plain as day now that these new GCA documents have been revealed.
It seems to me we have a classic case of "like father, like son" going on here.
Frank Fertitta Junior never went to jail for his part in casino skimming or any other organized crime endeavor he took part in over the years. Like the "Teflon Don" John Gotti, nothing stuck to Frank Junior, and he was allowed to ride off into the sunset untainted by a prison record and able to buy his first casino for just a buck as the legend is told. Frank Junior's buddies rotted in jail while he built his fortune in gaming and created a dynasty he could pass onto his sons.
Frank Fertitta III had to take the reigns at an early age when his father had no other choice but to pass the buck. Like his father, maybe Frank III devised a new-wave skim with help from GCA, or maybe he and his father muscled in on the GCA scam and took a percentage.
Either way, even a tenuous association of the Fertitta family with what looks to be a massive and purposely designed and perpetrated electronic skimming operation executed by GCA is troubling to say the least. The fact that Fertitta Enterprises would provide ousted GCA officials immediate positions in the soon-to-be-bankrupted Xyience adds more fuel to the conspiracy fire. There are a great deal of whys to be asked in this context.
Looking from the outside in, there is only one logical conclusion as to why all these entities and individuals were perpetrating this massive fraud together. It was all about the money, of course, and while all the loosely associated businesses owned by these individuals were doing well on their own, they could do better conglomerated. They would do even better than that working together under the radar as if they were still being operated by completely separated and unrelated entities and/or individuals.
These culprits had to scatter the blame and obscure the ownership connections as much as they could, and the pattern emerging now shows that they were successful at getting away with these tactics for a long time. If you look closely you can see all the lines of connectivity between these businesses, but on paper and from a distance the names are all different and the associations are hidden. The casual observer doesn't pick up on it.
Global Cash Access made recent moves to further distance itself from GCA Co-Founders Karim Maskatiya and Robert Cucinotta, both having emerged in recent months as suspects playing integral roles in the massive conspiracy run through the company and other offshoots owned by Cucinotta and Maskatiya. The most involved scheme allegedly netted in excess of $26 million based on fraudulent fee rigging by the company. The Arizona license denial paperwork claims GCA officers were not only conscious of the fraud but actively worked to conceal it, knowing that the fine would be minimal if caught in the act.
BREAKING DOWN THE DOCUMENTS
The Arizona Notice leaves room for Global Cash Access to contest the conditions for denial and prove that they are a new and improved entity, but the sheer weight of the allegations included in the document are staggering and might possibly be insurmountable.
In a release issued by GCA officials about the notice, the language is purposely vague:
"The notice summarizes the basis for the department's intention and alleges that GCA, its founding stockholders and certain of GCA's management undertook actions that demonstrate that GCA is not suitable under the department's standards to act as a provider of gaming services to Native American tribes conducting gaming in Arizona," Global Cash said in the 8-K regulatory filing.
The company also harps on the stipulations that make this move by Arizona gaming regulators a preliminary one and not really a final say, explaining that they will fight for their state certification:
"The notice provides GCA with the right to an informal settlement conference as well as a formal hearing before an administrative law judge in Arizona. GCA intends to seek the holding of the informal settlement conference prior to July 15, and the holding of the formal hearing, if necessary, as soon as possible thereafter. In the meantime, absent further action by the department that prohibits GCA from doing so, GCA intends to continue its operations in Arizona in the ordinary course of business," Global Cash said.
"GCA takes the notice and the allegations made therein very seriously. GCA believes that it has taken appropriate actions during the prior 20 months that will permit GCA to fully demonstrate that it should be considered suitable for certification by the department. Many of these actions involve the termination of GCA's relationships with certain affiliated parties and have been previously publicly communicated and provide the basis for GCA's belief that GCA is in fact suitable to act as a provider of gaming services to Native American tribes conducting gaming in Arizona," the release further explains.
The Arizona report goes beyond the alleged actions involved in the perpetration of the skimming operation. Regulators also allege a conscious plan to deceive gaming regulators in Michigan in 2004 and in Arizona in 2005 by not disclosing all the required information about the mis-coding issues:
"GCA deprived a regulatory agency of material information needed to make an informed suitability determination," the Arizona report said of the Global Cash case in Michigan. Company founders Karim Maskatiya and Robert Cucinotta "both attempted to mislead the investigators to hide GCA's interchange fee fraud and their involvement in it," the Arizona report says.
Above all other allegations, charges of Maskatiya and Cuccinotta failing to disclose their questioning in the murder of Maskatiya's wife are most shocking. Here is the text of an Oakland Tribune article printed at the time of the Maskatiya murder:
=====================================
Oakland Tribune March 24, 1982
Police rule out burglary as motive in murder
Fremont- Police said Tues the fatal shooting of Laila Maskatiya was not the result of a burglary in her home because there were no signs of forced entry and nothing was taken.
Detective Dan Fuller said no motive has been established in the slaying, and there is no suspect.
Maskatiya's husband, Karim, told police he arrived home from work at 7:30 Monday evening and found his 29 year old wife in the bedroom in their $350,000 home on Guadalupe Terrace.
She had been shot twice in the head with a hand gun and several empty cartridges were found near the body. Police said the couple's 4 year old son slept through the shooting.
============================================
The Arizona documents say, "Police detectives questioned both Maskatiya and Cucinotta regarding the murder. Both were read their Miranda rights. The detectives felt that Maskatiya and Cucinotta gave inconsistent statements and did not cooperate with the investigation. They also felt that Maskatiya knew, but would not reveal, the identity of the murderer," the Arizona report said.
Yet, both men answered 'no' when asked by Arizona regulators if they had ever been questioned by a law enforcement agency, the report went on to explain.
The Arizona Gaming Department said Maskatiya and Cucinotta were on the GCA board of directors until June 2008, but resigned six weeks after being interviewed by the department. It says they continue to hold more than 25 percent of the company's stock. However, an SEC filing dated July 7, 2009 indicates Cucinotta holds no voting rights and seemingly has no control or major stock value anymore in regard to GCA.
In February, 2009 documents filed with the SEC, Maskatiya and Cucinotta both still retained more than 9 million shares in GCA. Yet, while it appears that Cucinotta may be on his way to being completely muscled out of the company he co-founded, Maskatiya unloaded 2,768,800 of his own company shares at a rate of $6.25 each as recently as a month ago (6/10/09).
In a section of the report called "ongoing matters of concern," the Arizona regulators say:
==> Global Cash Access has never acknowledged or taken any action in regard to its wrongdoing.
==> Global Cash Access has continued contacts with people and companies involved in the Visa fee fraud.
==> The former Global Cash Access principals failed to disclose information about the murder investigation to regulators in Arizona and Mississippi.
==> Cucinotta and Maskatiya failed to disclose other information including their ownership of various companies.
==> Global Cash continues to have problems with payments of fees to casinos and with payments to casino patrons.
==> Global Cash principals had contact with gaming regulators that created an appearance of impropriety.
"GCA has committed a theft, fraud and concealment," the Arizona report alleges. "It has conspired in these actions with (related company) USA Payment Systems. It has demonstrated a willful disregard for compliance with gaming regulatory authorities and has misrepresented and concealed material facts, documents and information in its dealings with the department and others."
"Casino vendors providing electronic fund access must be reputable, honest, diligent and effective. GCA has proven itself to be none of these," the report said. "Allowing GCA's continued participation in gaming in Arizona damages the public's trust in Arizona casinos and casino regulators. Casinos cannot properly operate where patrons continually suspect or assume they are being cheated, and regulators are assumed to be either involved or incompetent."
In other words: Who wants to play a game everyone knows is rigged? It seems fitting that Arizona has the designation AZ, because for Global Cash Access Arizona could be the first on an A to Z list of officials and operations who may soon 'Just Say No' to the type of underhanded tactics GCA is generating a reputation for.
It is a new era in America as the recession revealed some of the worst fraudulent transgressions against honest taxpayers and shareholders. Bernie Madoff might be the biggest of all the frauds, but he was certainly not the only massive con man involved in the economic collapse. He was not the only one making money off misrepresenting his business practices. GCA appears to be a company that grew fat off the same spirit of fraudulent activity, never worrying about getting nailed with the petty fine. They jobbed the system and got away with it, but they still expect to hold the public's trust. Arizona may only represent a small percentage of GCA's worldwide business operations, but this kind of taint could make lots of other dominoes fall.
Taking a closer look at current operations at GCA, it is clear that even if the company ousts Maskatiya and Cuccinotta from direct public roles with the company, GCA will still be intimate with the other companies these accused frauds also run and/or retain principal positions in. Consider the full text of another SEC filing from earlier this year, indicating some possible behind-the-scenes infighting going on at the company:
Item 1.02. Termination of a Material Definitive Agreement.
On February 13, 2009, Global Cash Access Holdings, Inc. (the “Company”) received written notice from USA Payments of the termination of the Amended and Restated Agreement for Electronic Payment Processing, dated as of March 10, 2004, by and among Global Cash Access, Inc., USA Payments and USA Payment Systems (the “Agreement”). The Company disputes the alleged breaches of the Agreement upon which the notice of termination was based, as well as the right of USA Payments to terminate the Agreement.
To the Company’s knowledge, Karim Maskatiya and Robert Cucinotta directly or indirectly hold significant ownership interests in, and serve on the boards of directors of, USA Payment Systems and USA Payments. Messrs. Maskatiya and Cucinotta are former members of the board of directors of the Company, and to the Company’s knowledge, they collectively hold approximately 23.6% of the Company’s outstanding common stock. At the time that the Company entered into the Agreement, Messrs. Maskatiya and Cucinotta were members of the Company’s board of directors and controlled a majority of the outstanding equity interests in the Company.
Pursuant to the Agreement, USA Payments and USA Payment Systems performed for the Company electronic payment processing services relating to credit card cash advances, point-of-sale debit card transactions and ATM withdrawal transactions, including transmitting authorization requests to the relevant networks or gateways, forwarding transaction approvals or denials to the Company, and facilitating the settlement of all funds in connection with approved and consummated transactions. Pursuant to the Agreement, USA Payments and/or USA Payment Systems were subject to a service level guarantee; were required to enter into agreements with card associations, networks, gateways and financial institution sponsors necessary to provide services to the Company; were entitled to fixed monthly fees plus volume-based transaction fees; and, subject to limited exceptions, were prohibited from providing similar services to third parties in the gaming industry.
This Agreement was to expire according to its terms on March 10, 2014. In its notice of termination, USA Payments alleged that the Company breached the Agreement due to two technology issues involving one of the Company’s other business partners. The Company has worked diligently and closely with the affected business partner to ensure that all necessary technology remediation has been performed. USA Payment Systems and USA Payments have acknowledged their obligation pursuant to the Agreement to continue to provide services to the Company during a 180-day transition period. The Company disputes the right of USA Payments to terminate the Agreement. If this dispute is resolved with the mutual agreement of the Company and USA Payments, the Company may continue to receive services under the Agreement or a successor agreement with USA Payments or USA Payment Systems. If the Company and USA are unable to resolve the dispute, the Company will transition to another provider of electronic payment processing services in the 180-day transition period. To prepare for the potential need to transition to a new provider, the Company is already engaged in discussions with an alternate provider.
So it seems USA Payment Systems sought to separate from GCA rather than the other way around. Perhaps this was a tit for tat response to the company trying to shut out Cucinotta. At any RATE (pun intended), whatever decision Arizona ultimately makes regarding GCA could completely transform the merchant services industry. If the appropriate attention is paid to this disaster, the needed regulation and oversight to prevent a repeat of this behavior could save billions of dollars in bogus fees in the long run.
To learn more about the GCA, Fertitta, Zuffa, & Xyience scandal you can check out XYIENCESUCKS.COM or my other stories here.
MATT SERRA DOES A XYIENCE 180
By: Rich Bergeron
Matt Serra is back with Xyience in a big way. In case you didn't know, he made it perfectly clear by donning a Xyience hat upon striding up to the microphone after his big UFC win against Frank Trigg at UFC 109 this past Saturday. I admit I must have overlooked Serra's signing a new contract with the company in May, 2009.
Ironically, Serra discusses the movie "Casino" and Xyience in this YouTube Clip:
I can't tell if the Xenergy can Matt is clutching is even open, and while he handles the can quite a bit he never actually drinks from it. We know from Ken Flo's old drinking from a closed Xenergy can clip that Xyience had this problem before. Yet in the past it was always explained away as an octagon deal due to a Nevada State Athletic Commission requirement that only water be consumed by competing fighters in the state. This time Serra is on a T.V. set and should have no qualms about taking a drink or two during the interview.
According to Wikipedia, Serra first got involved with the Xyience brand after winning the fourth season of The Ultimate Fighter: "His win earned him a guaranteed title shot against Georges St. Pierre for the UFC Welterweight Championship,[4] as well as a $100,000 contract and $100,000 sponsorship with Xyience."
Serra was wrapped up in the scandal that led to Xyience's bankruptcy and the Fertitta Enterprises takeover, and his contract remained unpaid for a considerable amount of time before a settlement was reached. As part of the bankruptcy, complaints actually had to be filed by the trustee's office against some sponsored fighters Xyience (while owned by the Fertittas) settled with post-bankruptcy. Other creditors were technically supposed to be ahead of the fighters in line, though I doubt many would say it to their faces :), and seeing Serra back with the brand after enduring that debacle is very surprising.
It appears there may be a reason for Serra's incredible return. Actually there may be thousands of reasons. Beyond whatever Serra is getting paid to hawk the brand for Xyience, it appears there also may be some extra financial benefits of playing ball with the Fertittas and helping the brand recover its tainted image. Coming off a disappointing loss and facing a guy who is washed up at best, there is no reason Matt Serra should have made almost as much as "Captain America" Randy Couture's main event performance earned him. Yet, that's exactly what happened. Serra's $210,000 included a whopping $135,000 in bonus consideration.
I have been told by multiple witnesses familiar with Xyience and the UFC's past relationship that Xyience sponsored fighters would always tend to make more money per fight than those not sponsored by the company. The symbiotic relationship Xyience and the UFC had in the early days was very healthy. Both sides benefited tremendously from their association with each other. The branding of the best fighters in the company with Xyience sponsorships eventually resulted in a marriage that could not be easily dissolved. To this day many images of the league's best fighters feature Xyience logos displayed prominently in the picture. Rather than part ways and intensify the scandal, UFC brass devised an even more surreptitious plan for Xyience. They swept things under the rug and hoped nobody would notice by using Fertitta Enterprises to take over and then bankrupt the brand to start over.
The Fertittas are so far into this fiasco that they are now making it obvious, probably thinking they could never get caught. Not only did they pay Matt Serrra an obscene amount of bonus money, but they are also giving away Harley Davidson motorcycles now through a Xyience co-promotion. These are all conflict of interest and insider dealing games most businesses don't get away with when it's so obvious.
Matt Serra is not a stupid guy. He's definitely not wrapped up with Xyience for the free supplements and energy drinks. He'd at least be a bit more vocal about his favorite products if the partnership was based on the company's actual offerings. I've yet to see any evidence that he swears by any particular product Xyience makes. It seems pretty obvious the UFC brass probably made Serra a sweetheart deal to come back and start repairing some of the PR damage done to the brand over the years. I just wonder if Serra knows he's being used as a pawn for the Fertittas to prove to the world that the brand is back on its feet and all is forgiven.
On the contrary, the fight over Xyience is about to get even more contentious, and in the next few weeks the story will grow even wider. The entire direction of my own litigation against Xyience will be revolutionized soon, and a new phase of the case will begin. When the final details are hammered out, you'll read it here first. As always, stay tuned!
Matt Serra is back with Xyience in a big way. In case you didn't know, he made it perfectly clear by donning a Xyience hat upon striding up to the microphone after his big UFC win against Frank Trigg at UFC 109 this past Saturday. I admit I must have overlooked Serra's signing a new contract with the company in May, 2009.
Ironically, Serra discusses the movie "Casino" and Xyience in this YouTube Clip:
I can't tell if the Xenergy can Matt is clutching is even open, and while he handles the can quite a bit he never actually drinks from it. We know from Ken Flo's old drinking from a closed Xenergy can clip that Xyience had this problem before. Yet in the past it was always explained away as an octagon deal due to a Nevada State Athletic Commission requirement that only water be consumed by competing fighters in the state. This time Serra is on a T.V. set and should have no qualms about taking a drink or two during the interview.
According to Wikipedia, Serra first got involved with the Xyience brand after winning the fourth season of The Ultimate Fighter: "His win earned him a guaranteed title shot against Georges St. Pierre for the UFC Welterweight Championship,[4] as well as a $100,000 contract and $100,000 sponsorship with Xyience."
Serra was wrapped up in the scandal that led to Xyience's bankruptcy and the Fertitta Enterprises takeover, and his contract remained unpaid for a considerable amount of time before a settlement was reached. As part of the bankruptcy, complaints actually had to be filed by the trustee's office against some sponsored fighters Xyience (while owned by the Fertittas) settled with post-bankruptcy. Other creditors were technically supposed to be ahead of the fighters in line, though I doubt many would say it to their faces :), and seeing Serra back with the brand after enduring that debacle is very surprising.
It appears there may be a reason for Serra's incredible return. Actually there may be thousands of reasons. Beyond whatever Serra is getting paid to hawk the brand for Xyience, it appears there also may be some extra financial benefits of playing ball with the Fertittas and helping the brand recover its tainted image. Coming off a disappointing loss and facing a guy who is washed up at best, there is no reason Matt Serra should have made almost as much as "Captain America" Randy Couture's main event performance earned him. Yet, that's exactly what happened. Serra's $210,000 included a whopping $135,000 in bonus consideration.
I have been told by multiple witnesses familiar with Xyience and the UFC's past relationship that Xyience sponsored fighters would always tend to make more money per fight than those not sponsored by the company. The symbiotic relationship Xyience and the UFC had in the early days was very healthy. Both sides benefited tremendously from their association with each other. The branding of the best fighters in the company with Xyience sponsorships eventually resulted in a marriage that could not be easily dissolved. To this day many images of the league's best fighters feature Xyience logos displayed prominently in the picture. Rather than part ways and intensify the scandal, UFC brass devised an even more surreptitious plan for Xyience. They swept things under the rug and hoped nobody would notice by using Fertitta Enterprises to take over and then bankrupt the brand to start over.
The Fertittas are so far into this fiasco that they are now making it obvious, probably thinking they could never get caught. Not only did they pay Matt Serrra an obscene amount of bonus money, but they are also giving away Harley Davidson motorcycles now through a Xyience co-promotion. These are all conflict of interest and insider dealing games most businesses don't get away with when it's so obvious.
Matt Serra is not a stupid guy. He's definitely not wrapped up with Xyience for the free supplements and energy drinks. He'd at least be a bit more vocal about his favorite products if the partnership was based on the company's actual offerings. I've yet to see any evidence that he swears by any particular product Xyience makes. It seems pretty obvious the UFC brass probably made Serra a sweetheart deal to come back and start repairing some of the PR damage done to the brand over the years. I just wonder if Serra knows he's being used as a pawn for the Fertittas to prove to the world that the brand is back on its feet and all is forgiven.
On the contrary, the fight over Xyience is about to get even more contentious, and in the next few weeks the story will grow even wider. The entire direction of my own litigation against Xyience will be revolutionized soon, and a new phase of the case will begin. When the final details are hammered out, you'll read it here first. As always, stay tuned!
Putting the Xyience Story To Bed & Waiting For The Ultimate Judgment Day
By: Rich Bergeron
It is so hard to even imagine the day when the Xyience sage will really be over for me. Back when all this began I had a feeling it might be the kind of story that could define my career someday. It’s been nearly two-and-a-half years since the lawsuit paperwork reached my inbox. The court battles have been contentious and frustrating for the most part, but certain points were strangely fun.
I enjoyed more than anything the opportunity to call out the opposing lawyers along the way who always tried to back me into a corner with technicalities. None of them bothered to gather any substance or concrete evidence. They attacked me with lies upon lies, a foundation of falsehoods for a case that never had merit on their part. They defended their own subversive and manipulative behavior to hide the truth and decried my methods of revealing it.
For me, rather than reflecting negatively on all the days I’ve had to spend crafting motions and doing legal research or trying to calculate the total wasted hours, I look at my accomplishments by the numbers:
I’ve managed to keep this case moving through the system through 3 different judges before Bankruptcy Judge Mike Nakagawa took the matter over.
Judge Timothy Williams, the gentleman endorsed by Station Casinos for his campaign for the bench, was the first obstacle. Judge Williams signed the existing, un-enforced bogus injunction secured by the first lawyer on the case: Jamie Cogburn. By the time I appeared to argue against the application of a default judgment, Williams had warmed up to me a bit for at least trying to be a lawyer with all my might.
Click Here to read the throwback report on that first success before Williams that I argued a bit too hard for (recording included) but got anyway.
Williams eventually stepped down due to some coincidental connection to one of the law firms involved once Jamie Cogburn quit the case with an outstanding bill. The case spent a brief period under the guidance of two other Clark County, Nevada judges before being transferred to bankruptcy court and Nakagawa.
Four law firms couldn’t shut me down through the worst of conditions with all the odds against me.
Cogburn’s took a crack at the case and failed first. He famously offered to settle with me for “a box of sodas” and “a thousand dollars” when he was the one who first filed the case against me. It was yet another small victory knowing Xyience left him a huge unpaid balance.
Then Pamela Lawson of Hunterton and Associates took on Xyience as a client without even knowing how to pronounce the company’s name. She was easy to make fun of, and not just for me.
Fennemore Craig’s legal team of Laurel Davis and Jon Pearson never really lifted a finger to further their case, playing the defensive role through their whole involvement. Most of their hard work was done by the Fertitta Enterprises team fighting my counterclaim as a co-defendant of Xyience’s. The Fertittas had Gordon and Silver’s Greg Garman and Matthew Zirzow doing their dirty work, and these attorneys took some of my worst verbal barbs in writing and in spoken word at the bankruptcy hearings. I called Garman a clown twisting balloon animals for the court and hoping to amuse the judge at one hearing. I called his clients at Fertitta Enterprises thugs in business suits and corporate crooks.
The fifth firm is the liquidation trustee, and there no longer appears to be a need to fight these first legal minds outside of Nevada to handle the estate’s litigation streams. These folks are finally on my side and ready to put this long story in the proper perspective by concentrating all our combined legal efforts on the main culprits. They are already pursuing some of the same bad apples I’m after.
I’ve handled these legal matters in both local and federal court systems, all the while living thousands of miles from the venue. I’ve been flown to New York by my adversaries and to Las Vegas by some Xyience shareholders. I’ve been offered as much as $5,000 to walk away. I’ve spent about that much through the course of the litigation on associated costs, but never for any paid legal advice.
I even wound up taking on a fifth judge (judgegod.com) and a sixth law firm (www.lewis-kappessucks.com) in Indianapolis due to an unrelated book project involving a plastic surgeon’s most outspoken online critic. I started www.suckssite.com as a resource to all those Americans out there in need of an effective outlet to gripe about the things that irk them the most.
I’m hoping the days ahead might afford me the opportunity to stop being a lawyer and start being a writer again. More than the prospect of spending any settlement money on my formal law school training, what really intrigues me is using the funds to travel to appropriate research points for an all-inclusive book project.
The Ultimate Judgment will eventually come down against the Fertitta Enterprises crew and all the other individuals and entities involved in bankrupting and using Xyience to further their own needs. I’ll be involved with the trustee’s office every step of the way, but in a limited role so I’ll have time to write the story. A few more reports here will take us to the end of this whole saga’s Online life. From there the Xyience tale will grow to new heights as the only written expose to fully reveal the Fertittas for the true scumbags they are.
Stay tuned in the coming days as a new report is coming soon about some other "Usual Suspects" who moved onto other scams after bilking Xyience. I'll explore one of the trustee's other complaints and the defendants in that claim.
It is so hard to even imagine the day when the Xyience sage will really be over for me. Back when all this began I had a feeling it might be the kind of story that could define my career someday. It’s been nearly two-and-a-half years since the lawsuit paperwork reached my inbox. The court battles have been contentious and frustrating for the most part, but certain points were strangely fun. I enjoyed more than anything the opportunity to call out the opposing lawyers along the way who always tried to back me into a corner with technicalities. None of them bothered to gather any substance or concrete evidence. They attacked me with lies upon lies, a foundation of falsehoods for a case that never had merit on their part. They defended their own subversive and manipulative behavior to hide the truth and decried my methods of revealing it.
For me, rather than reflecting negatively on all the days I’ve had to spend crafting motions and doing legal research or trying to calculate the total wasted hours, I look at my accomplishments by the numbers:
I’ve managed to keep this case moving through the system through 3 different judges before Bankruptcy Judge Mike Nakagawa took the matter over.
Judge Timothy Williams, the gentleman endorsed by Station Casinos for his campaign for the bench, was the first obstacle. Judge Williams signed the existing, un-enforced bogus injunction secured by the first lawyer on the case: Jamie Cogburn. By the time I appeared to argue against the application of a default judgment, Williams had warmed up to me a bit for at least trying to be a lawyer with all my might.
Click Here to read the throwback report on that first success before Williams that I argued a bit too hard for (recording included) but got anyway.
Williams eventually stepped down due to some coincidental connection to one of the law firms involved once Jamie Cogburn quit the case with an outstanding bill. The case spent a brief period under the guidance of two other Clark County, Nevada judges before being transferred to bankruptcy court and Nakagawa.
Four law firms couldn’t shut me down through the worst of conditions with all the odds against me.
Cogburn’s took a crack at the case and failed first. He famously offered to settle with me for “a box of sodas” and “a thousand dollars” when he was the one who first filed the case against me. It was yet another small victory knowing Xyience left him a huge unpaid balance.
Then Pamela Lawson of Hunterton and Associates took on Xyience as a client without even knowing how to pronounce the company’s name. She was easy to make fun of, and not just for me.
Fennemore Craig’s legal team of Laurel Davis and Jon Pearson never really lifted a finger to further their case, playing the defensive role through their whole involvement. Most of their hard work was done by the Fertitta Enterprises team fighting my counterclaim as a co-defendant of Xyience’s. The Fertittas had Gordon and Silver’s Greg Garman and Matthew Zirzow doing their dirty work, and these attorneys took some of my worst verbal barbs in writing and in spoken word at the bankruptcy hearings. I called Garman a clown twisting balloon animals for the court and hoping to amuse the judge at one hearing. I called his clients at Fertitta Enterprises thugs in business suits and corporate crooks.
The fifth firm is the liquidation trustee, and there no longer appears to be a need to fight these first legal minds outside of Nevada to handle the estate’s litigation streams. These folks are finally on my side and ready to put this long story in the proper perspective by concentrating all our combined legal efforts on the main culprits. They are already pursuing some of the same bad apples I’m after.
I’ve handled these legal matters in both local and federal court systems, all the while living thousands of miles from the venue. I’ve been flown to New York by my adversaries and to Las Vegas by some Xyience shareholders. I’ve been offered as much as $5,000 to walk away. I’ve spent about that much through the course of the litigation on associated costs, but never for any paid legal advice.
I even wound up taking on a fifth judge (judgegod.com) and a sixth law firm (www.lewis-kappessucks.com) in Indianapolis due to an unrelated book project involving a plastic surgeon’s most outspoken online critic. I started www.suckssite.com as a resource to all those Americans out there in need of an effective outlet to gripe about the things that irk them the most.
I’m hoping the days ahead might afford me the opportunity to stop being a lawyer and start being a writer again. More than the prospect of spending any settlement money on my formal law school training, what really intrigues me is using the funds to travel to appropriate research points for an all-inclusive book project.
The Ultimate Judgment will eventually come down against the Fertitta Enterprises crew and all the other individuals and entities involved in bankrupting and using Xyience to further their own needs. I’ll be involved with the trustee’s office every step of the way, but in a limited role so I’ll have time to write the story. A few more reports here will take us to the end of this whole saga’s Online life. From there the Xyience tale will grow to new heights as the only written expose to fully reveal the Fertittas for the true scumbags they are.
Stay tuned in the coming days as a new report is coming soon about some other "Usual Suspects" who moved onto other scams after bilking Xyience. I'll explore one of the trustee's other complaints and the defendants in that claim.
3,000 READS! "The Real Story Behind the UFC's Royal Family" Reaches Bleacher Report Milestone
CLICK ON THE PICTURE BELOW TO READ THE "BEHIND THE MUSIC" OF THE UFC'S FERTITTA FAMILY DATING BACK TO THE FAMILY'S MAFIA ROOTS IN TEXAS. Help us get to 3,000 reads!!!
Taking A Moment To Look Back In Order To Prepare For The Road Ahead.
By: Rich Bergeron
Recent developments in the Xyience, Incorporated scandal triggered a renewed interest in the above-linked story that I posted on The Bleacher Report Web-site. A commenter on This Story at FightOpinion.Com about the recent Xyience scandal's resurgence says it all about the public's ignorance of the semi-secret Fertitta Family history:
"If Zuffa got caught as a shadow organization for the Gambino family or something, the press would be running each other off roads trying to be the first to make it to ambush Dana and the Fertitas for interviews. But a company doing simple corporate shadiness is boring."
Another commenter pointed the above user to my story about the real "family" history.
The fact is, all of these back room business deals surrounding Xyience and Station Casinos are so complicated and convoluted that nobody really wants to examine them under a microscope but the real legal experts. I had to examine these deals out of sheer necessity after I was wrongfully sued by Xyience for writing the truth about the shady activities going on there when my reports began. Fortunately for the shareholders of the company, I never gave up. Now the estate's liquidation trustee has a legal team working on dozens of complaints to return millions to the estate that was stolen through multiple streams of abuse and financial fraud. Fertitta Enterprises is tied to much of the alleged tampering with the bankruptcy. Based on what I know, these civil allegations could be only the beginning.
Eventually the whole MMA fan base that follows the UFC will be the ones looking back at these deals out of necessity to find out what went wrong and when. This is not the kind of ho-hum news that fades away with time. It only gets increasingly worse, and one day it will be time for the Fertittas to pay the piper. How much the UFC suffers as a result is up for debate, but the argument that it won't suffer is far-fetched.
The mainstream media will eventually take notice, and the Fertitta family piggy bank will eventually be drained by voluminous legal fees as they fight banks and Boyd Casinos in Vegas to retain a hold on the Station Casinos empire Frank Jr. built on a dollar and a dream. Fertitta Enterprises will take a big hit on Xyience if the trustee's case is successful in pinning the blame on that entity for initiating the BK on false pretenses and screwing the shareholders and creditors in the process.
Vegas itself appears to be under extreme stress lately due to the financial mess created by overzealous casino barons who outspent themselves and left unfinished projects languishing as a result. It is one of the worst areas hit by the housing market slump, and it is one of the most troublesome areas of the country when it comes to the homeless population. Recent media reports out of Vegas included an armored car robbery at Station Casinos and a shooting at the same federal courthouse where the Xyience bankruptcy is going on (that happened today). This is a distressed community, and it's starting to show. People are starting to become more brazen and unpredictable in their desperation.
These are the negative forces and issues brought to light by financial fraud and abuse of power. Much like the Bernie Madoff scenario had been handed to the SEC on a silver platter ten years before it really went up in smoke, the Vegas landscape also includes culprits who should have been caught a long time ago. Instead, the wheels they greased protected them from all harm. People develop feelings of being powerless because the upper crust continues to steal and get away with it and destroy lives in the process. Eventually their rage will boil over, and they will eventually be inspired to fight back. They will steal themselves, like the Station robbers. They will destroy lives themselves out of frustration, like the courthouse shooter. Those who take such measures may be few and far between at first, but as the crisis worsens and widens the population of people wandering off the reservation will grow.
The latest generation unfortunately seems to care more about what their favorite Hollywood star is writing on Twitter these days than they do about these deep, mysterious scandals in sports. The Call of Duty used to be more than a popular video game to the youth in this country. We've eroded into a do-nothing society when it comes to really trying to join together to fix the most egregious evils we see all around us. Most of us stand still and devote our lives to meaningless tasks and our jobs as cogs in the machine. Few step up and try to challenge the status quo. When people do fight back and get shut down, others cower behind them with no reason to try for a different result. We become sheeple, and the government officials (with the help of all the Capitalist fat cats who feed them) can shove whatever they want down our throats with the same old-fashioned pomp and circumstance as they've always operated with.
I was always taught to look deeper. Ask questions. Search for the truth. I'm glad I chose a battle such as the Xyience situation to get entrenched in, though the process has been painful and stressful to no end. I have no regrets, and I'm confident everything will work out in my favor when this case is in the history books. The dramatic effect this case has had in my life will translate beautifully to a book on the whole fiasco from start to finish. The legal victory in the long run will allow me a real-life model to show others how to embrace their own cases as their own attorneys and possibly win their own fights by following my example. That's all I really hope for.
It might not happen overnight, but the people's revolution is afoot and building momentum. If we don't stop cowering in the face of conglomerate corporate evil and face down our fears now, we'll simply be overtaken by the great wave of corruption that's destroyed this country.
Taking A Moment To Look Back In Order To Prepare For The Road Ahead.
By: Rich Bergeron
Recent developments in the Xyience, Incorporated scandal triggered a renewed interest in the above-linked story that I posted on The Bleacher Report Web-site. A commenter on This Story at FightOpinion.Com about the recent Xyience scandal's resurgence says it all about the public's ignorance of the semi-secret Fertitta Family history:
"If Zuffa got caught as a shadow organization for the Gambino family or something, the press would be running each other off roads trying to be the first to make it to ambush Dana and the Fertitas for interviews. But a company doing simple corporate shadiness is boring."
Another commenter pointed the above user to my story about the real "family" history.
The fact is, all of these back room business deals surrounding Xyience and Station Casinos are so complicated and convoluted that nobody really wants to examine them under a microscope but the real legal experts. I had to examine these deals out of sheer necessity after I was wrongfully sued by Xyience for writing the truth about the shady activities going on there when my reports began. Fortunately for the shareholders of the company, I never gave up. Now the estate's liquidation trustee has a legal team working on dozens of complaints to return millions to the estate that was stolen through multiple streams of abuse and financial fraud. Fertitta Enterprises is tied to much of the alleged tampering with the bankruptcy. Based on what I know, these civil allegations could be only the beginning.
Eventually the whole MMA fan base that follows the UFC will be the ones looking back at these deals out of necessity to find out what went wrong and when. This is not the kind of ho-hum news that fades away with time. It only gets increasingly worse, and one day it will be time for the Fertittas to pay the piper. How much the UFC suffers as a result is up for debate, but the argument that it won't suffer is far-fetched.
The mainstream media will eventually take notice, and the Fertitta family piggy bank will eventually be drained by voluminous legal fees as they fight banks and Boyd Casinos in Vegas to retain a hold on the Station Casinos empire Frank Jr. built on a dollar and a dream. Fertitta Enterprises will take a big hit on Xyience if the trustee's case is successful in pinning the blame on that entity for initiating the BK on false pretenses and screwing the shareholders and creditors in the process.
Vegas itself appears to be under extreme stress lately due to the financial mess created by overzealous casino barons who outspent themselves and left unfinished projects languishing as a result. It is one of the worst areas hit by the housing market slump, and it is one of the most troublesome areas of the country when it comes to the homeless population. Recent media reports out of Vegas included an armored car robbery at Station Casinos and a shooting at the same federal courthouse where the Xyience bankruptcy is going on (that happened today). This is a distressed community, and it's starting to show. People are starting to become more brazen and unpredictable in their desperation.
These are the negative forces and issues brought to light by financial fraud and abuse of power. Much like the Bernie Madoff scenario had been handed to the SEC on a silver platter ten years before it really went up in smoke, the Vegas landscape also includes culprits who should have been caught a long time ago. Instead, the wheels they greased protected them from all harm. People develop feelings of being powerless because the upper crust continues to steal and get away with it and destroy lives in the process. Eventually their rage will boil over, and they will eventually be inspired to fight back. They will steal themselves, like the Station robbers. They will destroy lives themselves out of frustration, like the courthouse shooter. Those who take such measures may be few and far between at first, but as the crisis worsens and widens the population of people wandering off the reservation will grow.
The latest generation unfortunately seems to care more about what their favorite Hollywood star is writing on Twitter these days than they do about these deep, mysterious scandals in sports. The Call of Duty used to be more than a popular video game to the youth in this country. We've eroded into a do-nothing society when it comes to really trying to join together to fix the most egregious evils we see all around us. Most of us stand still and devote our lives to meaningless tasks and our jobs as cogs in the machine. Few step up and try to challenge the status quo. When people do fight back and get shut down, others cower behind them with no reason to try for a different result. We become sheeple, and the government officials (with the help of all the Capitalist fat cats who feed them) can shove whatever they want down our throats with the same old-fashioned pomp and circumstance as they've always operated with.
I was always taught to look deeper. Ask questions. Search for the truth. I'm glad I chose a battle such as the Xyience situation to get entrenched in, though the process has been painful and stressful to no end. I have no regrets, and I'm confident everything will work out in my favor when this case is in the history books. The dramatic effect this case has had in my life will translate beautifully to a book on the whole fiasco from start to finish. The legal victory in the long run will allow me a real-life model to show others how to embrace their own cases as their own attorneys and possibly win their own fights by following my example. That's all I really hope for.
It might not happen overnight, but the people's revolution is afoot and building momentum. If we don't stop cowering in the face of conglomerate corporate evil and face down our fears now, we'll simply be overtaken by the great wave of corruption that's destroyed this country.
Xyience, Inc. Liquidation Trustee Files Complaint Against Fertitta Enterprises And Former Company Executives
Latest Xyience Case Update
By: Rich Bergeron
The Usual Suspects, including all the characters pictured below and Fertitta Enterprises GM William Bullard, are implicated in a new civil suit. The case, filed by the Xyience Bankruptcy Liquidation Trustee David Herzog Tuesday, is finally unearthing the scandal I've been reporting on here on this site for more than two years now. The complaint is very thorough, but I've created a CONDENSED VERSION HERE.
The characters and circumstances involved are nothing new to me, but the vindication of my own complaints is new. This is the official legal representative of Xyience finally picking up the story line I've been laying down for over two and a half years now. The judge in my own case will no doubt be more willing now to admit my case is substantially sound and worthy of a second examination. Read the complaint for yourself and take the time to look back at all my reports here, and you'll see they name all the individuals I've been complaining about on this site for years. Here is the full version of the complaint:
Xyience Liquidation Trustee Complaint -
By: Rich Bergeron
The Usual Suspects, including all the characters pictured below and Fertitta Enterprises GM William Bullard, are implicated in a new civil suit. The case, filed by the Xyience Bankruptcy Liquidation Trustee David Herzog Tuesday, is finally unearthing the scandal I've been reporting on here on this site for more than two years now. The complaint is very thorough, but I've created a CONDENSED VERSION HERE.
The characters and circumstances involved are nothing new to me, but the vindication of my own complaints is new. This is the official legal representative of Xyience finally picking up the story line I've been laying down for over two and a half years now. The judge in my own case will no doubt be more willing now to admit my case is substantially sound and worthy of a second examination. Read the complaint for yourself and take the time to look back at all my reports here, and you'll see they name all the individuals I've been complaining about on this site for years. Here is the full version of the complaint:
Xyience Liquidation Trustee Complaint -
Station Casinos' Executives Out To Lunch Without a Cell Phone: What's the Potential UFC Impact?
By: Rich Bergeron
$900 an hour lawyers should know better than to come into a casino bankruptcy without an open dialogue going with state gaming regulators. Yet, Station Casinos attorneys were caught with their pants down by the Reno, Nevada judge handling the case recently. It seems there has been no effort to even contact state regulators yet, though the company is already deep into bankruptcy. This Las Vegas Review Journal Article Says it All:
Lack of talk in Stations' bankruptcy case puzzles judge
Dana White Twitters with the best of them. Why can't the Fertittas or their attorneys follow his outspoken lead and pick up a phone and talk to some regulators? Probably because they are worried and leery of regulators finding out what's been going on there since the privatization of Station Casinos. That leveraged buyout is now being shrouded in conspiracy theories, and high-caliber lawyers are just now starting to dig into how that deal was done and who benefited most. We reported here on the suspicious lending anomalies regarding Station Casinos long before the bankruptcy was even looming. Frank Fertitta III had his signature on a few senior secured credit facilities for Station Casinos that are eerily similar to the one illustrated here (from a few years ago).
Another player, Vulture Capitalist Tom Barrack (His Colony Capital is part owner of Station Casinos and financed much of the buyout) is also raising eyebrows with billion dollar deals like this one. If the SEC slept on Bernie Madoff, they are in a coma in regards to this case and the tiers of corrupt players. From Xyience to Station Casinos, from Arc Investments to Zuffa this whole web of corruption is astounding in its scope and structure. This web is Global (Global Cash Access), National, and Local, and the longer it goes on unchecked the bigger the risk that MMA will end up with the black eye as a sport because of a few misguided people at the top levels of the sport. It is going to come crashing down at some point as all great schemes do. The Fertittas have made their money by borrowing upon borrowing and taking "dividends" from the company proceeds. They found a way to legally rape and pillage their own company with promises of a better tomorrow that turned out to be untrue.
Today, one can only hope the bankruptcy court and the regulators (whenever they do get involved) will find all the red flags and figure out what's really been going on all these years. The brothers Fertitta will have to eventually face the music. It's an open question as to how that will affect the UFC. If they have to shell out hundreds of millions of dollars in considerations and potential settlements with Station creditors, the family fortune may be so dwindled that they are forced to sell a large piece of the UFC organization to a friendly player. Mark Cuban or Vince Jr. (Shane McMahon) could be potential future insiders who wind up with controlling interests in the UFC if the Fertittas' funding sources run out and their credit dries up. Whatever happens, keep your eye on this Station situation and watch for the ripple effect.
$900 an hour lawyers should know better than to come into a casino bankruptcy without an open dialogue going with state gaming regulators. Yet, Station Casinos attorneys were caught with their pants down by the Reno, Nevada judge handling the case recently. It seems there has been no effort to even contact state regulators yet, though the company is already deep into bankruptcy. This Las Vegas Review Journal Article Says it All: Lack of talk in Stations' bankruptcy case puzzles judge
Dana White Twitters with the best of them. Why can't the Fertittas or their attorneys follow his outspoken lead and pick up a phone and talk to some regulators? Probably because they are worried and leery of regulators finding out what's been going on there since the privatization of Station Casinos. That leveraged buyout is now being shrouded in conspiracy theories, and high-caliber lawyers are just now starting to dig into how that deal was done and who benefited most. We reported here on the suspicious lending anomalies regarding Station Casinos long before the bankruptcy was even looming. Frank Fertitta III had his signature on a few senior secured credit facilities for Station Casinos that are eerily similar to the one illustrated here (from a few years ago).
Another player, Vulture Capitalist Tom Barrack (His Colony Capital is part owner of Station Casinos and financed much of the buyout) is also raising eyebrows with billion dollar deals like this one. If the SEC slept on Bernie Madoff, they are in a coma in regards to this case and the tiers of corrupt players. From Xyience to Station Casinos, from Arc Investments to Zuffa this whole web of corruption is astounding in its scope and structure. This web is Global (Global Cash Access), National, and Local, and the longer it goes on unchecked the bigger the risk that MMA will end up with the black eye as a sport because of a few misguided people at the top levels of the sport. It is going to come crashing down at some point as all great schemes do. The Fertittas have made their money by borrowing upon borrowing and taking "dividends" from the company proceeds. They found a way to legally rape and pillage their own company with promises of a better tomorrow that turned out to be untrue.
Today, one can only hope the bankruptcy court and the regulators (whenever they do get involved) will find all the red flags and figure out what's really been going on all these years. The brothers Fertitta will have to eventually face the music. It's an open question as to how that will affect the UFC. If they have to shell out hundreds of millions of dollars in considerations and potential settlements with Station creditors, the family fortune may be so dwindled that they are forced to sell a large piece of the UFC organization to a friendly player. Mark Cuban or Vince Jr. (Shane McMahon) could be potential future insiders who wind up with controlling interests in the UFC if the Fertittas' funding sources run out and their credit dries up. Whatever happens, keep your eye on this Station situation and watch for the ripple effect.
Station Casinos Collapse Backing UFC-owning Fertitta Brothers into a Corner
By: Rich Bergeron
When it rains, it pours for the Fertitta family. Last Friday the patriarch Frank Fertitta, Jr. died while undergoing treatment for heart disease in a California hospital. The death comes at the tail end of a long and painful campaign of pending bankruptcy that finally ended in the Chapter 11 proceedings that are now ongoing for Station Casinos. Services for the founding father of Station Casinos have been set for this Friday and Saturday. Yet, amidst all the major media reporting of this tragedy, only the Los Angeles Times piece on the subject has so far included the truth about the skimming investigation Frank was suspected in. Even then it was too little, too late.
The fact that Frank had been suspected of and investigated for skimming during his early career was much more important to the downfall of Station Casinos than many might think. It is this bare fact and the stigma that Frank never quite shook which kept him from being in charge of the company until his death. Instead, he was CEO of Fertitta Enterprises for a time, working on investments and land deals since he couldn't get involved in running the casinos. He left that job to his sons, with Frank III taking the reigns first in 1993. It just might be this early mantle laid upon Frank's oldest son that created the conditions which now exist today. The billionaire Fertitta brothers have shown over the years that they were never quite prepared to run the family business, unless the goal was to run it into the ground.
Perhaps the fatal blow to the family business and maybe even the father himself was the potential loss of Palace Station to Boyd gaming, a long-standing opponent and major competitor in the locals Vegas gaming market. Frank Junior reportedly spent every lunch hour he could at Palace Station, which was his true pride and joy and a place he might have loved even more than his own sons. This was the place that made the pauper into a prince. It all began with a little place called simply "The Casino." The name changed almost overnight after Frank Junior bought the shabby property and turned it into The Bingo Palace:
Knowing that Palace Station might be snatched away from the family by a well-placed bid in bankruptcy court must have been hard for Frank Junior to deal with. His sons must have been equally disturbed by the fact that their poor financial management of the company and over extending of company debt could ultimately lead to them losing their father's prized property to the highest bidder. Despite early rejections of Boyd's offers to purchase a group of core, less debt-laden properties during the days before bankruptcy set in, the competitor is now more intent than ever on acquiring whatever it can from its ailing enemy. If they get what they're looking for, it might even come at a lower price than they initially offered.
THE UFC IMPACT COULD BE SEVERE IN TIME
Dana White's attitude about Station Casinos falling on hard times was glib at first, and he insisted the casino troubles wouldn't translate into bad times ahead for the UFC. Yet, there is now talk of consolidating the WEC and UFC operations in what would ultimately be a cost-saving measure. The Fertittas seem to be showing signs of financial stress and things continue to get worse for the casino environment. There seems to be no bottom to the depression the company is experiencing with a reported $65.3 million loss posted by Station Casinos in the second quarter of this year.
Just a little less than a month before Station Casinos went bankrupt, Frank Fertitta III bought a $28 million home in Emerald Bay, which is a prime beachfront community in Orange County, California. The family was at one point ready to put up $244 million of their own family money to save the company from a painful bankruptcy. It seems Frank III decided to spend a considerable percentage of that bid when it seemed most apparent that the company couldn't be saved for that price. Meanwhile, now Lorenzo Fertitta is selling his Vegas house for 2.95 million bucks, meaning he may not be Dana White's close neighbor for much longer. Check out this amazing mansion on the market for a bargain:
Now that the company is in bankruptcy, the $244 million pre-packaged bankruptcy solution proposed by the Fertittas is out of the question.The company already reportedly has legal bills in excess of $16.2 million for the months leading up to the actual BK filing. The Fertittas themselves will also have to retain their own lawyers along with the rest of the company's directors. The road ahead is sure to be filled with turmoil as the finger of blame will likely be pointed squarely at the Fertitta brothers due to their ultimate oversight of the company during its fall from grace. More litigation will compound the bankruptcy as lenders and bondholders will try to exact revenge by trying to bust the big Fertitta piggy bank with the aid of high powered lawyers and law firms.
The Las Vegas Sun reports, "Station has already advanced retainers to Nave's law firms totaling $750,000 and to the Colony directors' law firm of $1 million; and has agreed to cover the costs of the attorneys for the Fertitta directors, the filing said. Additional costs for all the directors should be paid by Station as they are incurred, the company argued." Yet, even if the company does foot the legal bills for the moment, it will be Lorenzo and Frank III paying the price in the long run if litigation can prove they were reckless and irresponsible in their operation and oversight of Station Casinos. Though it's true that Lorenzo, Frank III, and Delise Sartini only own 24 percent of the company combined, Frank III and Lorenzo had the most principal management roles leading up to the bankruptcy. Lorenzo's departure for full-time UFC duty in 2008 is not likely to absolve him of culpability and may have been more of a cost-saving measure in hindsight. Of course, many experts would argue that Dana White really needed a babysitter, but it is also a strong possibility that Lorenzo knew the bankruptcy was coming and wanted nothing to do with burdening the company when he could be better used elsewhere.
The uglier the Station Casinos bankruptcy case gets, the more chances that the debacle will impact the UFC's operations in a negative manner. The so-called "experts" in the fight industry will claim that the two companies are wholly separate and unrelated. As such, they will further try to justify that the UFC is safe and secure no matter what happens to Station Casinos. At the same time these "experts" will harp on the bogus $1 billion price tag bestowed on the UFC by a Forbes magazine writer who seemingly never took into account the fact that there is a heavy debt load associated with the fight league that few talk about when a possible sale is discussed. My Enron of MMA page outlines all the details of the $350 million senior-secured credit facility that will make the UFC difficult to sell for a high profit margin. Even if the UFC's growth and success is perpetual, that loan will still have to be paid off in full before any sale would be worthwhile for all the players involved.
The vast wealth of the Fertitta family may actually be a barrier to the success of the UFC rather than a benefit considering the fact that the deepest pockets make the best targets when it comes to litigation. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to analyze the moves made by Station Casinos over the years and conclude that while the company itself suffered, the Fertitta family cashed in hand over fist. The litigation buck doesn't stop with Station Casinos, either. Though it's been a case that's been flying under the radar in recent months, the lawyers for the former PRIDE organization are still pursuing legal action against the Fertittas, Dana White, and Zuffa over allegedly false promises made that were supposed to guarantee PRIDE would continue as an active organization as part of the sale agreement. I have spoken personally with some of the lawyers on the case who are leaving no stone unturned and not giving up anytime soon.
While Frank Fertitta Jr.'s recent death may mean the brothers inherit some of their father's leftover fortune, even that influx of cash may not be enough to weather the storms to come. Of course, there are plenty of scenarios that could play out that might keep the Fertittas in great financial standing through all of this. Yet, to say that they are guaranteed to get through this with no real impact on the UFC is to neglect to consider the true facts at hand. Those facts point to the very real possibility that the Fertittas could exhaust their existing cash reserves while Station Casinos languishes in bankruptcy. If that happens, you might see the Fertittas seek another big loan package for the UFC putting that outfit in further debt. After all, the last UFC loan came only after the Fertittas overextended their credit with similar instruments they secured for Station Casinos. Those huge loans and an overzealous expansion of the company's gaming interests and land holdings have resulted in the current Station Casinos bankruptcy situation, and if something that big can fail so miserably, so can the UFC.
The bottom line here is that while the UFC brass and the associated spin machine will try to convince the fans that everything is on the up and up, behind the scenes times are very tough. The UFC continues to find success and expand its fan base in a manner that makes it appear ironclad and in no danger, but behind the smoke and mirrors there's a real possibility that things could soon start to go downhill fast. It all depends on what kind of impact the impending litigation and bankruptcy of Station Casinos has on the Fertitta family war chest. This is a family used to spending money at a rapid rate, and Frank III's $28 million home purchase during the toughest time Station Casinos has ever faced is a clear indicator of that. Those who might argue that it would be impossible for this family to lose everything over this might be the same folks who once thought Station Casinos would never go bankrupt.
As a huge fan of the UFC myself, I would never want to see the organization as a whole suffer over issues at a company that is supposed to be unrelated. At the same time, I have to wonder why the Fertittas would promise up to $244 million to keep Station Casinos out of a nasty bankruptcy. The only answer to that question is my mind is that they must have known if they couldn't make that deal things would get very ugly very fast. That's exactly what's happening. The only folks who will truly capitalize here are the bankruptcy lawyers, and there are already reports of huge legal fees accruing (as much as $995 per hour for some of these top-tier hot-shot attorneys).
As long as Station Casinos continues to lose revenue due to the poor economy and a prolonged bankruptcy, the Fertitta Brothers will have less money to invest in the UFC. If a complete catastrophe drains the Fertitta family coffers, they may very well try to leverage Zuffa's assets somehow. If at that point they are shafted by potential creditors and/or lenders, the real troubled waters for the company will start churning. A sale of the company might never take place as some have reported, but the lack of cash reserves could result in the UFC becoming a much more streamlined organization. Whether or not that streamlining negatively impacts the business remains to be seen, but those who tell you there will be no impact whatsoever are wishful thinkers. It all depends on how bad things get in the days to come.
SAINTS OR SINNERS? WILL THE FERTITTA REPUTATION RECOVER?
"A reputation once broken may possibly be repaired, but the world will always keep their eyes on the spot where the crack was." Joseph Hall
The Fertitta family still has a rock-solid reputation in Las Vegas. Numerous reports of Frank Fertitta, Jr.'s death in the Vegas media have made no mention of the family patriarch's troubles or tribulations. The most familiar refrain in these Vegas reports reflects the fact that Station Casinos has been repeatedly represented as one of the best companies to work for in Las Vegas. These articles also laud Frank Junior for virtually inventing the locals casino market. As far as Station Casinos bankruptcy news, I've yet to find an article that even suggests that anyone in the Fertitta family was reckless or irresponsible in the business practices that led to the bankruptcy.
Only a nasty and contentious bankruptcy process, which seems inevitable, will tarnish the Fertitta image in Sin City and beyond. Local reporters will have no choice but to explain what's happening when things get truly ugly. The cracks in the facade of the once untouchable family reputation will only then become fully visible.
As the truth emerges as to just how irresponsible the Fertittas have been leading up to this bankruptcy, it will become increasingly harder for the Fertitta Brothers to do business elsewhere. The way Fertitta Enterprises handled the Xyience bankruptcy is a perfect example of how powerful people can get away with impropriety with little consequence, but that was really small potatoes compared to the current situation with Station Casinos. I truly believe the Xyience debacle was a practice run for the bigger and bolder Station Bankruptcy. Though the Xyience situation was a much less sordid and scandalous affair than the Station Casinos bankruptcy process promises to be, there are some common threads. Unlike Xyience, though, the Fertittas have much more to lose when it comes to the casino business. I wouldn't be surprised if the Fertitta brothers completely sell off the business and confine themselves to either just a few properties or the consulting business alone.
Whatever happens, it will expose the true nature of just how ruthless billionaire business tycoons can be and what lengths they will go to in order to keep the money coming in. Those who think the Fertittas are saints and can do no wrong will ultimately have to accept that the sinner label is more appropriate. Just think about how much these guys are worth, what kind of money they're spending, and then look at what their fighters in the UFC get paid. No matter how successful the UFC becomes, it seems the league's top fighters will never get the kind of paydays that the best boxers get. This reality seems lost on most fans, and any fighter who speaks up about it knows there's a strong possibility of being blacklisted at best or thrown out of the league at worst.
For those few folks out there who know the real truth about how the Fertittas operate and the "family" history that put them where they are today, their comeuppance can't arrive too soon. Karma is a bitch.
When it rains, it pours for the Fertitta family. Last Friday the patriarch Frank Fertitta, Jr. died while undergoing treatment for heart disease in a California hospital. The death comes at the tail end of a long and painful campaign of pending bankruptcy that finally ended in the Chapter 11 proceedings that are now ongoing for Station Casinos. Services for the founding father of Station Casinos have been set for this Friday and Saturday. Yet, amidst all the major media reporting of this tragedy, only the Los Angeles Times piece on the subject has so far included the truth about the skimming investigation Frank was suspected in. Even then it was too little, too late.
The fact that Frank had been suspected of and investigated for skimming during his early career was much more important to the downfall of Station Casinos than many might think. It is this bare fact and the stigma that Frank never quite shook which kept him from being in charge of the company until his death. Instead, he was CEO of Fertitta Enterprises for a time, working on investments and land deals since he couldn't get involved in running the casinos. He left that job to his sons, with Frank III taking the reigns first in 1993. It just might be this early mantle laid upon Frank's oldest son that created the conditions which now exist today. The billionaire Fertitta brothers have shown over the years that they were never quite prepared to run the family business, unless the goal was to run it into the ground.
Perhaps the fatal blow to the family business and maybe even the father himself was the potential loss of Palace Station to Boyd gaming, a long-standing opponent and major competitor in the locals Vegas gaming market. Frank Junior reportedly spent every lunch hour he could at Palace Station, which was his true pride and joy and a place he might have loved even more than his own sons. This was the place that made the pauper into a prince. It all began with a little place called simply "The Casino." The name changed almost overnight after Frank Junior bought the shabby property and turned it into The Bingo Palace:
Knowing that Palace Station might be snatched away from the family by a well-placed bid in bankruptcy court must have been hard for Frank Junior to deal with. His sons must have been equally disturbed by the fact that their poor financial management of the company and over extending of company debt could ultimately lead to them losing their father's prized property to the highest bidder. Despite early rejections of Boyd's offers to purchase a group of core, less debt-laden properties during the days before bankruptcy set in, the competitor is now more intent than ever on acquiring whatever it can from its ailing enemy. If they get what they're looking for, it might even come at a lower price than they initially offered.
THE UFC IMPACT COULD BE SEVERE IN TIME
Dana White's attitude about Station Casinos falling on hard times was glib at first, and he insisted the casino troubles wouldn't translate into bad times ahead for the UFC. Yet, there is now talk of consolidating the WEC and UFC operations in what would ultimately be a cost-saving measure. The Fertittas seem to be showing signs of financial stress and things continue to get worse for the casino environment. There seems to be no bottom to the depression the company is experiencing with a reported $65.3 million loss posted by Station Casinos in the second quarter of this year.
Just a little less than a month before Station Casinos went bankrupt, Frank Fertitta III bought a $28 million home in Emerald Bay, which is a prime beachfront community in Orange County, California. The family was at one point ready to put up $244 million of their own family money to save the company from a painful bankruptcy. It seems Frank III decided to spend a considerable percentage of that bid when it seemed most apparent that the company couldn't be saved for that price. Meanwhile, now Lorenzo Fertitta is selling his Vegas house for 2.95 million bucks, meaning he may not be Dana White's close neighbor for much longer. Check out this amazing mansion on the market for a bargain:
Now that the company is in bankruptcy, the $244 million pre-packaged bankruptcy solution proposed by the Fertittas is out of the question.The company already reportedly has legal bills in excess of $16.2 million for the months leading up to the actual BK filing. The Fertittas themselves will also have to retain their own lawyers along with the rest of the company's directors. The road ahead is sure to be filled with turmoil as the finger of blame will likely be pointed squarely at the Fertitta brothers due to their ultimate oversight of the company during its fall from grace. More litigation will compound the bankruptcy as lenders and bondholders will try to exact revenge by trying to bust the big Fertitta piggy bank with the aid of high powered lawyers and law firms.
The Las Vegas Sun reports, "Station has already advanced retainers to Nave's law firms totaling $750,000 and to the Colony directors' law firm of $1 million; and has agreed to cover the costs of the attorneys for the Fertitta directors, the filing said. Additional costs for all the directors should be paid by Station as they are incurred, the company argued." Yet, even if the company does foot the legal bills for the moment, it will be Lorenzo and Frank III paying the price in the long run if litigation can prove they were reckless and irresponsible in their operation and oversight of Station Casinos. Though it's true that Lorenzo, Frank III, and Delise Sartini only own 24 percent of the company combined, Frank III and Lorenzo had the most principal management roles leading up to the bankruptcy. Lorenzo's departure for full-time UFC duty in 2008 is not likely to absolve him of culpability and may have been more of a cost-saving measure in hindsight. Of course, many experts would argue that Dana White really needed a babysitter, but it is also a strong possibility that Lorenzo knew the bankruptcy was coming and wanted nothing to do with burdening the company when he could be better used elsewhere.
The uglier the Station Casinos bankruptcy case gets, the more chances that the debacle will impact the UFC's operations in a negative manner. The so-called "experts" in the fight industry will claim that the two companies are wholly separate and unrelated. As such, they will further try to justify that the UFC is safe and secure no matter what happens to Station Casinos. At the same time these "experts" will harp on the bogus $1 billion price tag bestowed on the UFC by a Forbes magazine writer who seemingly never took into account the fact that there is a heavy debt load associated with the fight league that few talk about when a possible sale is discussed. My Enron of MMA page outlines all the details of the $350 million senior-secured credit facility that will make the UFC difficult to sell for a high profit margin. Even if the UFC's growth and success is perpetual, that loan will still have to be paid off in full before any sale would be worthwhile for all the players involved.
The vast wealth of the Fertitta family may actually be a barrier to the success of the UFC rather than a benefit considering the fact that the deepest pockets make the best targets when it comes to litigation. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to analyze the moves made by Station Casinos over the years and conclude that while the company itself suffered, the Fertitta family cashed in hand over fist. The litigation buck doesn't stop with Station Casinos, either. Though it's been a case that's been flying under the radar in recent months, the lawyers for the former PRIDE organization are still pursuing legal action against the Fertittas, Dana White, and Zuffa over allegedly false promises made that were supposed to guarantee PRIDE would continue as an active organization as part of the sale agreement. I have spoken personally with some of the lawyers on the case who are leaving no stone unturned and not giving up anytime soon.
While Frank Fertitta Jr.'s recent death may mean the brothers inherit some of their father's leftover fortune, even that influx of cash may not be enough to weather the storms to come. Of course, there are plenty of scenarios that could play out that might keep the Fertittas in great financial standing through all of this. Yet, to say that they are guaranteed to get through this with no real impact on the UFC is to neglect to consider the true facts at hand. Those facts point to the very real possibility that the Fertittas could exhaust their existing cash reserves while Station Casinos languishes in bankruptcy. If that happens, you might see the Fertittas seek another big loan package for the UFC putting that outfit in further debt. After all, the last UFC loan came only after the Fertittas overextended their credit with similar instruments they secured for Station Casinos. Those huge loans and an overzealous expansion of the company's gaming interests and land holdings have resulted in the current Station Casinos bankruptcy situation, and if something that big can fail so miserably, so can the UFC.
The bottom line here is that while the UFC brass and the associated spin machine will try to convince the fans that everything is on the up and up, behind the scenes times are very tough. The UFC continues to find success and expand its fan base in a manner that makes it appear ironclad and in no danger, but behind the smoke and mirrors there's a real possibility that things could soon start to go downhill fast. It all depends on what kind of impact the impending litigation and bankruptcy of Station Casinos has on the Fertitta family war chest. This is a family used to spending money at a rapid rate, and Frank III's $28 million home purchase during the toughest time Station Casinos has ever faced is a clear indicator of that. Those who might argue that it would be impossible for this family to lose everything over this might be the same folks who once thought Station Casinos would never go bankrupt.
As a huge fan of the UFC myself, I would never want to see the organization as a whole suffer over issues at a company that is supposed to be unrelated. At the same time, I have to wonder why the Fertittas would promise up to $244 million to keep Station Casinos out of a nasty bankruptcy. The only answer to that question is my mind is that they must have known if they couldn't make that deal things would get very ugly very fast. That's exactly what's happening. The only folks who will truly capitalize here are the bankruptcy lawyers, and there are already reports of huge legal fees accruing (as much as $995 per hour for some of these top-tier hot-shot attorneys).
As long as Station Casinos continues to lose revenue due to the poor economy and a prolonged bankruptcy, the Fertitta Brothers will have less money to invest in the UFC. If a complete catastrophe drains the Fertitta family coffers, they may very well try to leverage Zuffa's assets somehow. If at that point they are shafted by potential creditors and/or lenders, the real troubled waters for the company will start churning. A sale of the company might never take place as some have reported, but the lack of cash reserves could result in the UFC becoming a much more streamlined organization. Whether or not that streamlining negatively impacts the business remains to be seen, but those who tell you there will be no impact whatsoever are wishful thinkers. It all depends on how bad things get in the days to come.
SAINTS OR SINNERS? WILL THE FERTITTA REPUTATION RECOVER?
"A reputation once broken may possibly be repaired, but the world will always keep their eyes on the spot where the crack was." Joseph Hall
The Fertitta family still has a rock-solid reputation in Las Vegas. Numerous reports of Frank Fertitta, Jr.'s death in the Vegas media have made no mention of the family patriarch's troubles or tribulations. The most familiar refrain in these Vegas reports reflects the fact that Station Casinos has been repeatedly represented as one of the best companies to work for in Las Vegas. These articles also laud Frank Junior for virtually inventing the locals casino market. As far as Station Casinos bankruptcy news, I've yet to find an article that even suggests that anyone in the Fertitta family was reckless or irresponsible in the business practices that led to the bankruptcy.
Only a nasty and contentious bankruptcy process, which seems inevitable, will tarnish the Fertitta image in Sin City and beyond. Local reporters will have no choice but to explain what's happening when things get truly ugly. The cracks in the facade of the once untouchable family reputation will only then become fully visible.
As the truth emerges as to just how irresponsible the Fertittas have been leading up to this bankruptcy, it will become increasingly harder for the Fertitta Brothers to do business elsewhere. The way Fertitta Enterprises handled the Xyience bankruptcy is a perfect example of how powerful people can get away with impropriety with little consequence, but that was really small potatoes compared to the current situation with Station Casinos. I truly believe the Xyience debacle was a practice run for the bigger and bolder Station Bankruptcy. Though the Xyience situation was a much less sordid and scandalous affair than the Station Casinos bankruptcy process promises to be, there are some common threads. Unlike Xyience, though, the Fertittas have much more to lose when it comes to the casino business. I wouldn't be surprised if the Fertitta brothers completely sell off the business and confine themselves to either just a few properties or the consulting business alone.
Whatever happens, it will expose the true nature of just how ruthless billionaire business tycoons can be and what lengths they will go to in order to keep the money coming in. Those who think the Fertittas are saints and can do no wrong will ultimately have to accept that the sinner label is more appropriate. Just think about how much these guys are worth, what kind of money they're spending, and then look at what their fighters in the UFC get paid. No matter how successful the UFC becomes, it seems the league's top fighters will never get the kind of paydays that the best boxers get. This reality seems lost on most fans, and any fighter who speaks up about it knows there's a strong possibility of being blacklisted at best or thrown out of the league at worst.
For those few folks out there who know the real truth about how the Fertittas operate and the "family" history that put them where they are today, their comeuppance can't arrive too soon. Karma is a bitch.
STATION CASINOS OFFICIALLY FILES BANKRUPTCY
By: Rich Bergeron
Station Casinos has filed for bankruptcy after negotiations with creditors failed to produce a workable solution. While the bankruptcy filing only affects a portion of the vast business and its many arms, it could be a very long fight. The company, laden with an estimated $5.7 billion in debt, is playing off the move as nothing to get alarmed about in recent press reports:
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL: CHAPTER 11 PROTECTION: Station Casinos regroups, continues normal operations at resorts
Hurt by Debt, Casino Firm Station Files for Chapter 11
Station Casinos ends negotiations with bondholders, files for Ch. 11 protection
ASSOCIATED PRESS STORY ON BANKRUPTCY
CASINO CONSULTING AND MANAGEMENT COMPANY NOT PART OF BANKRUPTCY
Station Casinos has filed for bankruptcy after negotiations with creditors failed to produce a workable solution. While the bankruptcy filing only affects a portion of the vast business and its many arms, it could be a very long fight. The company, laden with an estimated $5.7 billion in debt, is playing off the move as nothing to get alarmed about in recent press reports:
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL: CHAPTER 11 PROTECTION: Station Casinos regroups, continues normal operations at resorts
Hurt by Debt, Casino Firm Station Files for Chapter 11
Station Casinos ends negotiations with bondholders, files for Ch. 11 protection
ASSOCIATED PRESS STORY ON BANKRUPTCY
CASINO CONSULTING AND MANAGEMENT COMPANY NOT PART OF BANKRUPTCY
THE LATEST XYIENCE LAWSUIT & OTHER XYIENCE DEVELOPMENTS
By: Rich Bergeron
Tonight, I found out the true meaning of "no good deed goes unpunished." After years of fighting to expose the truth behind the Xyience scandal I am now the last person in the bankruptcy process still fighting to get relief for burned shareholders. I try to send updates from time to time to all those with some connection to Xyience through past stock ownership and/or other affiliations. Every now and then someone asks to be removed from the list. Some people would just rather forget. Then there was tonight's message from a woman named Diane Frank:
from DIANE FRANK TEAM
to Rich Bergeron
date Thu, Jun 18, 2009 at 1:59 AM
subject Re: XYIENCE JUST GOT SUED AGAIN!
mailed-by yahoo.com
signed-by yahoo.com
hide details 1:59 AM (1 hour ago)
Reply
Follow up message
Rich
I dont give a fuck! I am a single mother with 4 children and you/YES you personally ruined Xyience. You and I both know the true facts. Please do not send me your ____ again.
Diane Frank
THE DIANE FRANK TEAM
Diane Frank (951) 727-0149
Office (951) 727-0200
Fax (951) 727-0232
It's nice to know you have the support of the people you are fighting for. I hope this is just misplaced anger or a misunderstanding, but it's hard to tell. Unfortunately nobody believes it when you try to help for no reason at all. It's just not the norm, and that's a shame.
At any rate, the reason I really wanted to write this article is to highlight how Xyience is being sued again.
R&R International, INC. Just filed action against Xyience in Florida on April 13, 2009 over a distribution agreement gone sour. The agreement, according to the complaint, contained the following clause: "Xyience hereby grants the exclusive right to distribute and sell the Xyience Energy Drink brand product lines to Accounts in the state of Florida except for the area listed below and the exclusive license to use the Trademarks solely in connection therewith, in each case subject to the remaining provisions of this agreement. All additional distribution opportunities outside of the above mentioned territories will have to be approved by Xyience."
Enter JP Beverage Distributors, requesting a significant order of Xyience product, the complaint explains. Under the first cause of action for breach of contract, R&R claims JP Beverage wound up buying the product shipment directly from Xyience after R&R already purchased everything to fill the same order from Xyience. Instead of cooperating with the agreement, it appears Xyience either intentionally or unintentionally breached it if the complaint's allegations are true. In true scamster style, this situation would have resulted in Xyience getting paid twice for the same order. What's worse is that the complaint also alleges Xyience stiffed R&R on an $8 commission for each case of Xenergy sold. Rather than confront the mess with integrity and professionalism, it seems the good folks at Xyience allegedly played hardball. The lawsuit paperwork also lays out how Xyience reportedly refused to duly credit R&R and then suddenly demanded payment on all outstanding invoices. This appears to be designed to back out of the contract the easy way if R&R could not pay and the contract were to go into default.
The complaint also adds a second breach of contract cause of action. This second claim details how Xyience's billing and invoicing was not up to snuff and goes into further detail about other failures of Xyience to meet their responsibilities as outlined in the distribution agreement. For a company trying to make major inroads with distributors this could be a red flag proving the company is not really in good hands as its newly crowned CEO will try to tell folks even while the same old stuff keeps happening behind the scenes.
This site, claiming to be the home page for R&R, still proudly boasts of the Xyience agreement with the company. While the lawsuit does not specify exactly how much damage R&R sustained financially as a result of the alleged Xyience breaches, the complaint request in excess of $75,000 in damages, attorney fees and court costs, and a jury trial.
The case is rife with evidence, which includes paperwork initialed MCC (Manchester Consolidated Corporation I'm guessing) where Xyience is supposed to initial. Manchester, which has at least two core former-Cott executives on staff (Cott makes Xenergy) bought Xyience last year out of bankruptcy for $15 million. Today, a company called Manzen is the official DBA (doing business as) of Xyience, indicating Zyen, LLC (A Fertitta Enterprises Company) is still playing an integral role in company management. It appears the purchase was a "rent to own" type agreement and not an outright cash for assets deal.
The next hearing in my own Xyience case comes on July 1, 2009 and will be in regards to sanctions Fertitta Enterprises attorneys have asked the judge to levy against me. This should be an interesting episode of the Xyience saga to say the least. Go to www.xyiencesucks.com to learn more.
Tonight, I found out the true meaning of "no good deed goes unpunished." After years of fighting to expose the truth behind the Xyience scandal I am now the last person in the bankruptcy process still fighting to get relief for burned shareholders. I try to send updates from time to time to all those with some connection to Xyience through past stock ownership and/or other affiliations. Every now and then someone asks to be removed from the list. Some people would just rather forget. Then there was tonight's message from a woman named Diane Frank:
from DIANE FRANK TEAM
to Rich Bergeron
date Thu, Jun 18, 2009 at 1:59 AM
subject Re: XYIENCE JUST GOT SUED AGAIN!
mailed-by yahoo.com
signed-by yahoo.com
hide details 1:59 AM (1 hour ago)
Reply
Follow up message
Rich
I dont give a fuck! I am a single mother with 4 children and you/YES you personally ruined Xyience. You and I both know the true facts. Please do not send me your ____ again.
Diane Frank
THE DIANE FRANK TEAM
Diane Frank (951) 727-0149
Office (951) 727-0200
Fax (951) 727-0232
It's nice to know you have the support of the people you are fighting for. I hope this is just misplaced anger or a misunderstanding, but it's hard to tell. Unfortunately nobody believes it when you try to help for no reason at all. It's just not the norm, and that's a shame.
At any rate, the reason I really wanted to write this article is to highlight how Xyience is being sued again.
R&R International, INC. Just filed action against Xyience in Florida on April 13, 2009 over a distribution agreement gone sour. The agreement, according to the complaint, contained the following clause: "Xyience hereby grants the exclusive right to distribute and sell the Xyience Energy Drink brand product lines to Accounts in the state of Florida except for the area listed below and the exclusive license to use the Trademarks solely in connection therewith, in each case subject to the remaining provisions of this agreement. All additional distribution opportunities outside of the above mentioned territories will have to be approved by Xyience."
Enter JP Beverage Distributors, requesting a significant order of Xyience product, the complaint explains. Under the first cause of action for breach of contract, R&R claims JP Beverage wound up buying the product shipment directly from Xyience after R&R already purchased everything to fill the same order from Xyience. Instead of cooperating with the agreement, it appears Xyience either intentionally or unintentionally breached it if the complaint's allegations are true. In true scamster style, this situation would have resulted in Xyience getting paid twice for the same order. What's worse is that the complaint also alleges Xyience stiffed R&R on an $8 commission for each case of Xenergy sold. Rather than confront the mess with integrity and professionalism, it seems the good folks at Xyience allegedly played hardball. The lawsuit paperwork also lays out how Xyience reportedly refused to duly credit R&R and then suddenly demanded payment on all outstanding invoices. This appears to be designed to back out of the contract the easy way if R&R could not pay and the contract were to go into default.
The complaint also adds a second breach of contract cause of action. This second claim details how Xyience's billing and invoicing was not up to snuff and goes into further detail about other failures of Xyience to meet their responsibilities as outlined in the distribution agreement. For a company trying to make major inroads with distributors this could be a red flag proving the company is not really in good hands as its newly crowned CEO will try to tell folks even while the same old stuff keeps happening behind the scenes.
This site, claiming to be the home page for R&R, still proudly boasts of the Xyience agreement with the company. While the lawsuit does not specify exactly how much damage R&R sustained financially as a result of the alleged Xyience breaches, the complaint request in excess of $75,000 in damages, attorney fees and court costs, and a jury trial.
The case is rife with evidence, which includes paperwork initialed MCC (Manchester Consolidated Corporation I'm guessing) where Xyience is supposed to initial. Manchester, which has at least two core former-Cott executives on staff (Cott makes Xenergy) bought Xyience last year out of bankruptcy for $15 million. Today, a company called Manzen is the official DBA (doing business as) of Xyience, indicating Zyen, LLC (A Fertitta Enterprises Company) is still playing an integral role in company management. It appears the purchase was a "rent to own" type agreement and not an outright cash for assets deal.
The next hearing in my own Xyience case comes on July 1, 2009 and will be in regards to sanctions Fertitta Enterprises attorneys have asked the judge to levy against me. This should be an interesting episode of the Xyience saga to say the least. Go to www.xyiencesucks.com to learn more.
Solving The Crime: An Intro to The Story Behind The Fertitta/Zuffa Assassination of PRIDE
By: Rich Bergeron
PART ONE OF A TWO-PART SERIES
SOME HISTORY BEHIND ZUFFA'S FOUNDING "FAMILY"
It is important to frame this piece with a bit of Fertitta "Family" history.
There could be endless debate on the subject of whether the Zuffa-owning Fertitta sons could possibly be "made men" even despite all the oversight and regulation involved in the gaming industry. It may be unlikely that the Brothers Fertitta could be carrying on any sort of traditional racketeering, and they are generally promoted as "clean" and clear of those old connections, but this family is historically ruthless, and some things get passed on through genes even if not by the traditions and principles of "La Cosa Nostra."
So, is it conceivable Frank Fertitta III and Lorenzo Fertitta might still be doing the bidding of the same kind of ruthless folks their father worked for when he made all his initial inroads in Las Vegas? As far as being "bosses" of a crime family, the two don't brothers fit the stereotypical "Don" profile at all, though Frank III has been referred to as "Frankie Three Sticks." Yet, blending into the mainstream business world would be perfect cover if these two brothers are indeed somehow carrying on the old family traditions and associations. If the influence is more subtle, less pronounced, harder to track, and hardly ever talked about, everybody wins. An investigation into the family's recent business activity from A to Zuffa reveals that even if the mafia stigma is no longer a factor, certain moves made by all the associated Fertitta businesses resemble financial "hits" or shakedowns.
No other Fertitta business move in relation to MMA has been more infamous than the assassination of PRIDE, at one point the greatest and only major threatening competition the UFC faced. Yet, long before PRIDE was on the Zuffa purchasing radar the Fertitta-led Zuffa team muscled in on other promoters and made the whole industry fit their needs. The process seemed to favor them every step of the way, and it is no surprise that they gained quick sanctioning and respectability in Nevada because of the Fertitta endorsement and the family's power base there.
A famous Zuffa move made fairly early on was to trademark the word "Octagon." There is a California promoter named Kazja who was using that term and an octagon cage long before the UFC made it famous. Kazja is a very intriguing character, and he can recite the detailed history of MMA's rise in California and the political machinations that culminated recently in the disgraced exodus of California State Athletic Commission Armando Garcia. People like Kazja and Ron Kort have been screaming from the rooftops for years about how the UFC is allegedly complicit in much of the corruption involved in California MMA circles. Kazja's site explains a lot of the early politics involved with the UFC, and his contentions regarding how the unified rules of MMA were adopted are also really staggering.
The Fertittas and Zuffa have not been implicated thus far in any formal charges or corruption probes related to Armando Garcia as of yet, but evidence unearthed by Kazja, Kort, and some other promoters in California points to a long campaign of intimidation and overbearing influence waged by those behind the UFC.
Pablo Picasso once said, "good artists create, but great artists steal." There are folks out there who have been trying to show for years that the Fertittas, Dana White, and Zuffa as a whole started out by stealing whatever they could get away with to build what has since become the WWE of MMA. Are all these folks railing against the corruption they see just jealous? Are they misinformed? Are all the UFC's detractors just "haters" who like to flame Dana White 24/7 on the message boards? Or, do things like the "Zuffa Myth" really exist? It's well known that nice guys finish last and the business world can certainly be a cruel and brutal atmosphere at times, but some would argue the UFC's approach to business has been excessively ruthless.
There are even allegations that the folks behind the UFC stole the concept for one of the most popular UFC offshoots: The Ultimate Fighter reality TV franchise. Chris Champagne told us back in 2007 about a TUF-like show called "The Quest" he allegedly pitched to Dana White, only to have it snatched from him without getting any credit or payment whatsoever.
Click here to listen to part 2 of Chris Champagne's Interview.
So, as far as rackets the Fertittas have still got robbery going for them in at least a figurative business sense. The latest cases of the Xyience bankruptcy and the Station Casinos looming bankruptcy debacle represent an extension of what looks to me like a sophisticated new legal corporate theft ring. The Fertittas have also recently personally extended an offering of $244 million in cash to bankrupt Station casinos smoothly and wipe out much of the vaulting debt that hangs over the company while under the Chapter 11 blanket. It appears that they might have been using the Xyience bankruptcy as a trial run to see if they could handle such a process and if it would be beneficial.
So, the recent family history details a penchant for adapting old school mafia thinking into new-school shady business dealing. The new rules of engagement may all be legal but they are no less dangerous and disturbing to the victims on the other end of the shaft.
BLOOD ON ZUFFA'S HANDS:
The only actual murder thought to be possibly connected in any way to the Fertitta Family in recent years is that of casino skimmer Carl Thomas, and because of the mysterious circumstances there isn't any actual evidence that it even was a murder. Thomas was killed in a one car accident in Oregon shortly after talking to Frank Fertitta, Jr. about testimony Thomas was supposed to give in relation to the Fertitta family's gaming interests. He died before he could give that testimony, and the crash was ruled an accident. Thomas and Fertitta had a long history together, some of which is illustrated in the Nicholas Pilleggi book that spawned the movie "Casino."
Since that single car accident on a lonely stretch of Oregon road just a short distance from Thomas' own property, the Fertitta family has been working feverishly to put the "family" associations behind them. There have been no mysterious deaths or criminal probes into Fertitta activity since Frank III took over the casino empire in the wake of the Thomas crash.
If Thomas was murdered, the execution was perfectly planned and orchestrated. The Fertittas have an uncanny history of avoiding the long arm of the law. Even in the days when many Fertitta family members were known organized crime associates running rackets in Texas they were able to avoid convictions. The family has mastered the art of not getting caught in the act and covering up their transgressions and their past family history.
This kind of ruthless criminal genius may just be passed down from generation to generation through genetics, and the latest crop of Fertitta brothers may very well be the most sophisticated and slick businessmen to ever come from the Fertitta bloodline. After all, under their tenure as Zuffa owners they have been able to corner the MMA market and remain on the top of the heap of competing leagues. Though the early going meant millions of dollars in hard losses, they have turned the sinking ship around.
However, just like the mysterious death of Carl Thomas resulted in the Fertittas getting the green light to expand their gambling empire to Kansas City, so too did another murder of sorts allow the Fertitta family to take advantage of another situation.
The corporate murder of the Japan-based PRIDE organization is still lamented by hard core MMA fans who miss the PRIDE format and unique rules. PRIDE involved 10 minute rounds fought in a ring and allowed soccer kicks to the head to name just a couple differences between their league and the UFC. There were also a host of formidable and impressive PRIDE fighters and an amazing assortment of some recordings of the best MMA fights ever fought that were all inclusive assets attached to the PRIDE organization's sale to Zuffa. The UFC would eventually acquire all the PRIDE assets by promising to continue to run and cultivate PRIDE as a going concern. Instead, Zuffa simply dismantled their competition piece by piece.
The PRIDE and Xyience cases overlap in some respects, but until now I have devoted little research to the history of PRIDE itself and the deal that resulted in that organization's ultimate death. The gist of the Xyience connection is that the strength of the Xyience sponsorship was touted as one of the justifications for the $350 million financing package related to the PRIDE purchase that was procured by Zuffa. I lay out the whole "senior secured credit facility" scheme here: http://www.unlimitedfightnews.com/xyiencewow.htm.
Due to my investigative reporting on Xyience and how the Fertittas bought into Xyience just in time to prop it up and make it look viable for the PRIDE financing to go through, I was actually contacted by PRIDE's legal team representing the former owners of the organization in litigation against Zuffa. I have consulted with their attorney on a few occasions already and will be reporting regularly on developments in the case here on this blog over the next few weeks.
From what I know now it appears to me that the UFC's acquisition of PRIDE was never designed to keep both organizations alive and thriving. The UFC has been steadily losing the most money on overseas shows since it is headquartered in Las Vegas and naturally holds many of its events there or in the continental United States. The logistics and the costs skyrocket when you have to take the whole operation to the other side of the world for a major event.
To operate PRIDE in Japan would have been a logistical nightmare for the Fertittas without relying heavily on those already running the company there. It's pretty obvious to me that the UFC had this in mind all along when they set about destroying the PRIDE brand after purchasing the company. From what I know about Zuffa and the Fertittas, they don't like working with any other promotion if they don't absolutely have to. So I wonder why would they agree to work with PRIDE's assistance at all.
The UFC had acquired the WEC with great success prior to buying PRIDE, but that was a United States-based company. It has been a lot easier for the UFC to develop that company into a powerhouse than it would have been for them to maintain PRIDE overseas.
My opinion, which has been cultivated through my own personal legal experiences with Fertitta Enterprises attorneys, is that the Fertittas and Zuffa lawyers made sure all agreements with PRIDE's owners had an easy way out. If they could prove a technicality to back out of any contract they signed with PRIDE, it would be a perfect arrangement for them to feign interest in maintaining the league until they could find a way to destroy it. If they intended to work with PRIDE to continue the organization, the agreements they signed would seem to be along those lines. However, if they only intended to lie to PRIDE officials just long enough to acquire the company and all the assets, the language and the fine print of those agreements would be naturally written with escape clauses.
The covenants of the $350 million senior secured credit facility Zuffa used to buy PRIDE and its assets may contain some hints to this scandal if they are ever made public or acquired by PRIDE's legal team. If the Fertittas indeed intended to cultivate the PRIDE brand according to their promises to PRIDE officials, those covenants should say something about that business plan.
Not surprisingly, Zuffa's defense was a good offense, as they filed the first legal salvo in this ongoing saga. Reports first surfaced about the lawsuit in early February of 2008. The suit claimed that Zuffa's bargain basement PRIDE buyout was nothing of the sort and that the UFC was actually the victim in the whole deal. This Sherdog article describes how the initially rosy PRIDE/UFC conglomeration developed and then dissolved into litigation over the course of about a year after the UFC bought the league.
The UFC suit focused on background checks supposedly required on the PRIDE deal due to the Fertitta connection to Station Casinos and the Nevada Gaming Commission. This is a puzzling and as of yet unexplained mystery since naturally the Fertittas have to keep their gaming interests and the UFC operations wholly separate from each other. For instance, UFC bets are not taken at Station Casinos properties, and UFC events are not held at any Station Casinos property. Also, it doesn't appear any background checks were done on some of the individuals associated with the Xyience bankruptcy and my initial Xyience reports.
PRIDE's legal team responded with a countersuit. They just filed this amended counterclaim pleading that describes a devious plan to allegedly "kill PRIDE" voiced by none other than Dana White himself. PRIDE contends that Zuffa officials breached their contracts and pumped up the glorified tabloid stories of PRIDE's associations with Yakuza crime families in Japan that were printed in a Japanese publication called Shukan Gendai. The publication is no stranger to stirring worldwide scandal and regularly publishes controversial nude photos. The following description comes from the Wikkipedia page for the publication:
"Sh?kan Gendai (?????, "Nowadays Weekly") is a Japanese weekly magazine published since 1959 by Kodansha. Published simultaneously with Weekly Post (another weekly magazine published by Shogakukan), it includes articles about political scandals, sports and celebrities; nude photos; movie information; book reviews; and other articles of interest to middle-aged salarymen. Along with Weekly Post, it is credited with coining the pseudo-English term "hair nude", meaning nude photography that shows pubic hair.
"The magazine is probably best known outside Japan for its role in the scandal which led to Romanian gymnasts Corina Ungureanu, Lavinia Milosovici and Claudia Presecan being banned from competing or coaching in their home country for five years, as it was the first to publish images from their nude photobook and DVDs, which controversially featured the gymnasts wearing their official leotards."
Considering the 90% owners of the UFC come from a long line of notorious "made men" these Yakuza allegations against Dream Stage Entertainment owners are a bit hypocritical.
A hard look must be taken at the Senior Secured Credit Facility which was used to buy PRIDE and allow the principal Zuffa owners to pocket huge dividends. These same loan instruments on a much larger scale were taken out by Station Casinos in amounts of nearly a billion dollars in each instance over the last few years, which obviously resulted in a lot of overhead costs and interest payments combined with a ton of debt that crash landed and exploded due to the ongoing recession. The Fertittas went about a campaign of ruthless and relentless acquisitions and expansion to get themselves in their current Station Casinos situation, and they pinballed the company from Public to Private status to find a way to make the whole thing appear profitable despite the billions in debt they were in officially.
Suddenly they have $244 million in the pocket of an old pair of jeans to throw into reorganizing Station Casinos, but they couldn't revamp PRIDE when that organization showed signs that the going may be difficult? It doesn't seem plausible when considering the less than $70 million cost of PRIDE compared to the dividends pocketed by Dana White and the Fertittas through that $350 million credit facility that paid for PRIDE. That instrument could have and should have given all of Zuffa's owners enough money to solve any looming problem with promoting and re-creating the PRIDE brand in their image. That is, IF they ever actually intended to keep PRIDE in operation.
Of course, there is not really any dispute as to who murdered PRIDE. The UFC terminated the league without a doubt, and the blood of PRIDE is certainly all over their hands. However, some would call the killing euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide while folks like me consider it more of a gangland slaying made to look like an "accident." Could the Fertitta Brothers and Dana White be capable of such a thing? Ultimately a judge will have to decide, and we will keep everyone updated as the court continues to weigh the issues and work toward final resolution of this case.
Stay tuned for Part Two of this series. We will analyze the PRIDE/Dream Stage Entertainment lawsuit in further detail and take a look at the entire docket to come to our own conclusions on who is ahead in this fight and who needs to gain some ground or give up. Also, look out for another installment in the Xyience series due to new developments in that case.
PART ONE OF A TWO-PART SERIES
SOME HISTORY BEHIND ZUFFA'S FOUNDING "FAMILY"
It is important to frame this piece with a bit of Fertitta "Family" history.
There could be endless debate on the subject of whether the Zuffa-owning Fertitta sons could possibly be "made men" even despite all the oversight and regulation involved in the gaming industry. It may be unlikely that the Brothers Fertitta could be carrying on any sort of traditional racketeering, and they are generally promoted as "clean" and clear of those old connections, but this family is historically ruthless, and some things get passed on through genes even if not by the traditions and principles of "La Cosa Nostra."
So, is it conceivable Frank Fertitta III and Lorenzo Fertitta might still be doing the bidding of the same kind of ruthless folks their father worked for when he made all his initial inroads in Las Vegas? As far as being "bosses" of a crime family, the two don't brothers fit the stereotypical "Don" profile at all, though Frank III has been referred to as "Frankie Three Sticks." Yet, blending into the mainstream business world would be perfect cover if these two brothers are indeed somehow carrying on the old family traditions and associations. If the influence is more subtle, less pronounced, harder to track, and hardly ever talked about, everybody wins. An investigation into the family's recent business activity from A to Zuffa reveals that even if the mafia stigma is no longer a factor, certain moves made by all the associated Fertitta businesses resemble financial "hits" or shakedowns.
No other Fertitta business move in relation to MMA has been more infamous than the assassination of PRIDE, at one point the greatest and only major threatening competition the UFC faced. Yet, long before PRIDE was on the Zuffa purchasing radar the Fertitta-led Zuffa team muscled in on other promoters and made the whole industry fit their needs. The process seemed to favor them every step of the way, and it is no surprise that they gained quick sanctioning and respectability in Nevada because of the Fertitta endorsement and the family's power base there.
A famous Zuffa move made fairly early on was to trademark the word "Octagon." There is a California promoter named Kazja who was using that term and an octagon cage long before the UFC made it famous. Kazja is a very intriguing character, and he can recite the detailed history of MMA's rise in California and the political machinations that culminated recently in the disgraced exodus of California State Athletic Commission Armando Garcia. People like Kazja and Ron Kort have been screaming from the rooftops for years about how the UFC is allegedly complicit in much of the corruption involved in California MMA circles. Kazja's site explains a lot of the early politics involved with the UFC, and his contentions regarding how the unified rules of MMA were adopted are also really staggering.
The Fertittas and Zuffa have not been implicated thus far in any formal charges or corruption probes related to Armando Garcia as of yet, but evidence unearthed by Kazja, Kort, and some other promoters in California points to a long campaign of intimidation and overbearing influence waged by those behind the UFC.
Pablo Picasso once said, "good artists create, but great artists steal." There are folks out there who have been trying to show for years that the Fertittas, Dana White, and Zuffa as a whole started out by stealing whatever they could get away with to build what has since become the WWE of MMA. Are all these folks railing against the corruption they see just jealous? Are they misinformed? Are all the UFC's detractors just "haters" who like to flame Dana White 24/7 on the message boards? Or, do things like the "Zuffa Myth" really exist? It's well known that nice guys finish last and the business world can certainly be a cruel and brutal atmosphere at times, but some would argue the UFC's approach to business has been excessively ruthless.
There are even allegations that the folks behind the UFC stole the concept for one of the most popular UFC offshoots: The Ultimate Fighter reality TV franchise. Chris Champagne told us back in 2007 about a TUF-like show called "The Quest" he allegedly pitched to Dana White, only to have it snatched from him without getting any credit or payment whatsoever.
Click here to listen to part 2 of Chris Champagne's Interview.
So, as far as rackets the Fertittas have still got robbery going for them in at least a figurative business sense. The latest cases of the Xyience bankruptcy and the Station Casinos looming bankruptcy debacle represent an extension of what looks to me like a sophisticated new legal corporate theft ring. The Fertittas have also recently personally extended an offering of $244 million in cash to bankrupt Station casinos smoothly and wipe out much of the vaulting debt that hangs over the company while under the Chapter 11 blanket. It appears that they might have been using the Xyience bankruptcy as a trial run to see if they could handle such a process and if it would be beneficial.
So, the recent family history details a penchant for adapting old school mafia thinking into new-school shady business dealing. The new rules of engagement may all be legal but they are no less dangerous and disturbing to the victims on the other end of the shaft.
BLOOD ON ZUFFA'S HANDS:
The only actual murder thought to be possibly connected in any way to the Fertitta Family in recent years is that of casino skimmer Carl Thomas, and because of the mysterious circumstances there isn't any actual evidence that it even was a murder. Thomas was killed in a one car accident in Oregon shortly after talking to Frank Fertitta, Jr. about testimony Thomas was supposed to give in relation to the Fertitta family's gaming interests. He died before he could give that testimony, and the crash was ruled an accident. Thomas and Fertitta had a long history together, some of which is illustrated in the Nicholas Pilleggi book that spawned the movie "Casino."
Since that single car accident on a lonely stretch of Oregon road just a short distance from Thomas' own property, the Fertitta family has been working feverishly to put the "family" associations behind them. There have been no mysterious deaths or criminal probes into Fertitta activity since Frank III took over the casino empire in the wake of the Thomas crash.
If Thomas was murdered, the execution was perfectly planned and orchestrated. The Fertittas have an uncanny history of avoiding the long arm of the law. Even in the days when many Fertitta family members were known organized crime associates running rackets in Texas they were able to avoid convictions. The family has mastered the art of not getting caught in the act and covering up their transgressions and their past family history.
This kind of ruthless criminal genius may just be passed down from generation to generation through genetics, and the latest crop of Fertitta brothers may very well be the most sophisticated and slick businessmen to ever come from the Fertitta bloodline. After all, under their tenure as Zuffa owners they have been able to corner the MMA market and remain on the top of the heap of competing leagues. Though the early going meant millions of dollars in hard losses, they have turned the sinking ship around.
However, just like the mysterious death of Carl Thomas resulted in the Fertittas getting the green light to expand their gambling empire to Kansas City, so too did another murder of sorts allow the Fertitta family to take advantage of another situation.
The corporate murder of the Japan-based PRIDE organization is still lamented by hard core MMA fans who miss the PRIDE format and unique rules. PRIDE involved 10 minute rounds fought in a ring and allowed soccer kicks to the head to name just a couple differences between their league and the UFC. There were also a host of formidable and impressive PRIDE fighters and an amazing assortment of some recordings of the best MMA fights ever fought that were all inclusive assets attached to the PRIDE organization's sale to Zuffa. The UFC would eventually acquire all the PRIDE assets by promising to continue to run and cultivate PRIDE as a going concern. Instead, Zuffa simply dismantled their competition piece by piece.
The PRIDE and Xyience cases overlap in some respects, but until now I have devoted little research to the history of PRIDE itself and the deal that resulted in that organization's ultimate death. The gist of the Xyience connection is that the strength of the Xyience sponsorship was touted as one of the justifications for the $350 million financing package related to the PRIDE purchase that was procured by Zuffa. I lay out the whole "senior secured credit facility" scheme here: http://www.unlimitedfightnews.com/xyiencewow.htm.
Due to my investigative reporting on Xyience and how the Fertittas bought into Xyience just in time to prop it up and make it look viable for the PRIDE financing to go through, I was actually contacted by PRIDE's legal team representing the former owners of the organization in litigation against Zuffa. I have consulted with their attorney on a few occasions already and will be reporting regularly on developments in the case here on this blog over the next few weeks.
From what I know now it appears to me that the UFC's acquisition of PRIDE was never designed to keep both organizations alive and thriving. The UFC has been steadily losing the most money on overseas shows since it is headquartered in Las Vegas and naturally holds many of its events there or in the continental United States. The logistics and the costs skyrocket when you have to take the whole operation to the other side of the world for a major event.
To operate PRIDE in Japan would have been a logistical nightmare for the Fertittas without relying heavily on those already running the company there. It's pretty obvious to me that the UFC had this in mind all along when they set about destroying the PRIDE brand after purchasing the company. From what I know about Zuffa and the Fertittas, they don't like working with any other promotion if they don't absolutely have to. So I wonder why would they agree to work with PRIDE's assistance at all.
The UFC had acquired the WEC with great success prior to buying PRIDE, but that was a United States-based company. It has been a lot easier for the UFC to develop that company into a powerhouse than it would have been for them to maintain PRIDE overseas.
My opinion, which has been cultivated through my own personal legal experiences with Fertitta Enterprises attorneys, is that the Fertittas and Zuffa lawyers made sure all agreements with PRIDE's owners had an easy way out. If they could prove a technicality to back out of any contract they signed with PRIDE, it would be a perfect arrangement for them to feign interest in maintaining the league until they could find a way to destroy it. If they intended to work with PRIDE to continue the organization, the agreements they signed would seem to be along those lines. However, if they only intended to lie to PRIDE officials just long enough to acquire the company and all the assets, the language and the fine print of those agreements would be naturally written with escape clauses.
The covenants of the $350 million senior secured credit facility Zuffa used to buy PRIDE and its assets may contain some hints to this scandal if they are ever made public or acquired by PRIDE's legal team. If the Fertittas indeed intended to cultivate the PRIDE brand according to their promises to PRIDE officials, those covenants should say something about that business plan.
Not surprisingly, Zuffa's defense was a good offense, as they filed the first legal salvo in this ongoing saga. Reports first surfaced about the lawsuit in early February of 2008. The suit claimed that Zuffa's bargain basement PRIDE buyout was nothing of the sort and that the UFC was actually the victim in the whole deal. This Sherdog article describes how the initially rosy PRIDE/UFC conglomeration developed and then dissolved into litigation over the course of about a year after the UFC bought the league.
The UFC suit focused on background checks supposedly required on the PRIDE deal due to the Fertitta connection to Station Casinos and the Nevada Gaming Commission. This is a puzzling and as of yet unexplained mystery since naturally the Fertittas have to keep their gaming interests and the UFC operations wholly separate from each other. For instance, UFC bets are not taken at Station Casinos properties, and UFC events are not held at any Station Casinos property. Also, it doesn't appear any background checks were done on some of the individuals associated with the Xyience bankruptcy and my initial Xyience reports.
PRIDE's legal team responded with a countersuit. They just filed this amended counterclaim pleading that describes a devious plan to allegedly "kill PRIDE" voiced by none other than Dana White himself. PRIDE contends that Zuffa officials breached their contracts and pumped up the glorified tabloid stories of PRIDE's associations with Yakuza crime families in Japan that were printed in a Japanese publication called Shukan Gendai. The publication is no stranger to stirring worldwide scandal and regularly publishes controversial nude photos. The following description comes from the Wikkipedia page for the publication:
"Sh?kan Gendai (?????, "Nowadays Weekly") is a Japanese weekly magazine published since 1959 by Kodansha. Published simultaneously with Weekly Post (another weekly magazine published by Shogakukan), it includes articles about political scandals, sports and celebrities; nude photos; movie information; book reviews; and other articles of interest to middle-aged salarymen. Along with Weekly Post, it is credited with coining the pseudo-English term "hair nude", meaning nude photography that shows pubic hair.
"The magazine is probably best known outside Japan for its role in the scandal which led to Romanian gymnasts Corina Ungureanu, Lavinia Milosovici and Claudia Presecan being banned from competing or coaching in their home country for five years, as it was the first to publish images from their nude photobook and DVDs, which controversially featured the gymnasts wearing their official leotards."
Considering the 90% owners of the UFC come from a long line of notorious "made men" these Yakuza allegations against Dream Stage Entertainment owners are a bit hypocritical.
A hard look must be taken at the Senior Secured Credit Facility which was used to buy PRIDE and allow the principal Zuffa owners to pocket huge dividends. These same loan instruments on a much larger scale were taken out by Station Casinos in amounts of nearly a billion dollars in each instance over the last few years, which obviously resulted in a lot of overhead costs and interest payments combined with a ton of debt that crash landed and exploded due to the ongoing recession. The Fertittas went about a campaign of ruthless and relentless acquisitions and expansion to get themselves in their current Station Casinos situation, and they pinballed the company from Public to Private status to find a way to make the whole thing appear profitable despite the billions in debt they were in officially.
Suddenly they have $244 million in the pocket of an old pair of jeans to throw into reorganizing Station Casinos, but they couldn't revamp PRIDE when that organization showed signs that the going may be difficult? It doesn't seem plausible when considering the less than $70 million cost of PRIDE compared to the dividends pocketed by Dana White and the Fertittas through that $350 million credit facility that paid for PRIDE. That instrument could have and should have given all of Zuffa's owners enough money to solve any looming problem with promoting and re-creating the PRIDE brand in their image. That is, IF they ever actually intended to keep PRIDE in operation.
Of course, there is not really any dispute as to who murdered PRIDE. The UFC terminated the league without a doubt, and the blood of PRIDE is certainly all over their hands. However, some would call the killing euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide while folks like me consider it more of a gangland slaying made to look like an "accident." Could the Fertitta Brothers and Dana White be capable of such a thing? Ultimately a judge will have to decide, and we will keep everyone updated as the court continues to weigh the issues and work toward final resolution of this case.
Stay tuned for Part Two of this series. We will analyze the PRIDE/Dream Stage Entertainment lawsuit in further detail and take a look at the entire docket to come to our own conclusions on who is ahead in this fight and who needs to gain some ground or give up. Also, look out for another installment in the Xyience series due to new developments in that case.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)