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Xyience Bankruptcy Hearing Yields No Decision On Sanctions For Now: Lorenzo Fertitta Suit May Be In Pipeline

2011-10-07T21:57:00.000-07:00

By: Rich Bergeron

CLICK HERE FOR AN ARTICLE ON THE LATEST LEGAL WRANGLING IN THE LAS VEGAS REVIEW JOURNAL

An adversary case filed in Nevada bankruptcy court by the trustee's counsel for Xyience against Fertitta Enterprises, Zyen, and Zyen's General Manager William Bullard is suddenly getting very interesting. A contentious hearing Friday, October 30th in the case addressed a sanctions request for discovery violations. The hearing gave way to suggestions from Trustee's Counsel Jon Backman that Lorenzo Fertitta could be named in an entirely new future complaint as a result of what his recent, last-ditch discovery efforts uncovered.

Bankruptcy Judge Lloyd King seemed to take some limited interest in the sanctions motion and made some remarks indicating he agreed with Backman's factual take on the situation. Still, he made no final decision on the motion and asked for supplemental briefs from both sides regarding the procedural technicalities involved. Judge King also indicated that a follow up hearing featuring witness testimony would likely have to be held to determine the direction and breadth of any sanctions that could possibly apply. The judge also later set a proposed trial date for the existing case in April, 2012.

Despite what Backman described as harsh conditions for collecting evidence, he explained to Judge King that what he did find so late in the game changed the whole direction of his case. Backman argued that the lack of cooperation from his adversaries made the case far more difficult to deal with. The real tragedy, he explained, is the evidence that's just impossible to uncover. "We're never going to see those emails," Backman lamented about a situation in which he sought official Xyience email servers his adversaries somehow could not produce despite rigorous attempts to force them to. "There's nothing left to compel production of."

The complicated scenario that led to the sanctions request left both sides in the legal wrangling claiming the other was being unreasonable. A previous article previewing this hearing explains the nuances of the trustee's claims. Missing and now impossible to recover email communications are at the center of the controversy. A Fertitta right hand man of sorts, William J. Bullard, became public enemy number one for Attorney Backman at Friday's hearing.

Bullard is the General Manager of Zyen, LLC, formed as a Fertitta Enterprises subsidiary to provide a loan to Xyience. Once in the chief lien position over Xyience, the Fertitta side company quickly foreclosed on the debt. Zyen then became Manzen and assumed control of Xyience after the company declared bankruptcy in early 2008. Manzen was actually a combination of the Fertitta group (Zyen) and a company made up of four individuals named Manchester Consolidated. The combined parties coordinated to enter into a payment program in order to allow Manchester to appear to be buying the company out of bankruptcy. The monthly payments from Manchester eventually stopped coming in, giving control of Xyience back to Fertitta Enterprises once again.

To add another layer of intrigue to the complicated scheme, Machester Consolidated consisted of a total of four people with two of them being former executives of Cott beverages. Cott is the manufacturer of Xenergy. Had the bankruptcy resulted in another ownership group acquiring the company, Cott might not be guaranteed a chance to continue doing business creating the company's popular drink product that touts itself as the official energy drink of the UFC.

Friday's hearing discussed emails, some of which were only discovered after the trustee had to resort to delivering a subpoena to Gordon Biersch, a brewery and restaurant chain also owned by the Fertittas and managed by Bullard. Due to what he described as a painstaking process, Backman eventually did get a hold of some crucial emails, including one he described as "one of the hottest smoking guns I've ever seen in litigation." Fittingly called Exhibit G, the email between Bullard and Lorenzo Fertitta mentioned a $150 million offer for the purchase of Xyience from the Cott Corporation. The date of the email was aligned very closely with the first $12 million in financing the Fertittas provided to Xyience to gain control of it down the line.

The offer, if company officials capitalized on it, could have helped Xyience shareholders recover some value for their shares. Instead, it seems the Fertittas were intent on locking the shareholders out at the first opportunity they could, refusing to hold scheduled shareholder meetings and neglecting to pay the first interest payment on their loan with company funds. Hundreds of shareholders lost nearly all hope of any recovery when the Cott offer morphed into a scheme involving former Cott executives and their associates pretending to purchase the company for $15 million as a "stalking horse bidder" in the bankruptcy.

Coincidentally, I have a pending motion in these proceedings under my own adversary case which seeks $150 million in relief to be granted to shareholders burned by a campaign to silence my reporting that was trying to bring the whole Fertitta scheme to light. At the time I filed that motion I had no idea this smoking gun of an email existed, but it certainly fits a pattern I've described time and again for my readers here and at xyiencesucks.com in intricate detail.

Traditional mainstream media surrounding the sport of MMA and the world of finance is really missing the boat when it comes to the meat of this story. Yet, even a publishing entity that painted the Fertittas in a more positive light in the past picked up this vein of the tale surrounding Backman's sanctions request. Forbes Magazine didn't afford the trustee's attorney the courtesy of spelling his name correctly in the piece, and the author falsely asserted there is formal mediation involved in the case, but they did make an attempt to tell the story's most important points.

Forbes didn't send anyone to the actual hearing, though. None of the local papers had reporters there, either. It was not hard to find a seat in the courtroom. This is a story that's still unfolding in a controlled environment of sorts, so damage control for the Fertittas and the UFC so far has been fairly limited.

Backman is on track to make this case into much more of a spectacle if he indeed names Lorenzo Fertitta in any future complaint. The subpoena of Gordon Biersch's email server information led Backman to some documents he professed to never seeing before, documents that could pinpoint Lorenzo Fertitta's role in the conspiracy to bankrupt Xyience and defraud the company's shareholders and creditors.

"Whole cases can turn on single documents," Backman reminded the judge in open court on Friday. Getting a hold of the evidence that turned his case in a completely new direction added enormous excess costs for Backman to absorb on a case he took on contingency. These very documents, had Backman acquired them earlier, could have allowed the estate to make much more progress in the complicated litigation surrounding the estate at a much earlier date in the process. Instead, Backman now has to backtrack and reflect on the countless hours of wasted time spent chasing down company email servers he could never actually obtain.

The destruction, loss, and/or failure to preserve these servers and hard drives sought by Backman leaves a gaping hole in the case. The frustrating scenario caused irreparable damage that Backman had some trouble fully quantifying for the judge Friday. During much of his argument before the court, Fertitta Attorneys Gregory Garman and Joel Schwarz busily took notes, whispered to each other, and appeared to be genuinely agitated by the accusations against them and their clients. There really isn't much hard evidence of a driven, purposeful campaign to destroy the evidence in question, but the situation is about as suspicious as it could possibly be.

Attorney Garman explained away the accusations from Garman as "outrageous" and personally referred to Exhibit G sarcastically with the same "smoking gun" label Backman applied to it. Garman provided a basic timeline and list of efforts he personally undertook to assist the trustee in finding evidence. He vehemently disputes the claims that his actions constituted the hindering of Backman's discovery efforts. Instead, he explained that he did everything in his power and his clients assisted to the best of their abilities to voluntarily provide every shred of evidence they possibly could. Garman, at one point citing his high blood pressure, seemed clearly disturbed that his reputation might take a hit because of this case. Deep into one of his rants about how cooperative and misunderstood he is, he actually had to apologize when he almost uttered my name instead of Backman's.

Even though Garman is an expert litigator and an excellent speaker, Backman's accusations and evidentiary support are clearly bothersome for the Gordon Silver attorney. During my own past interactions with Garman he's come across as overly concerned about how others perceive him professionally. He told me himself at one point earlier this year that he considers the Fertittas one of his least significant clients, but at this point the task of protecting them and their associates seems to be causing him some "xtreme" stress. He even asked the judge for a recess and extra time afterward to argue more points surrounding his purported cooperation with the discovery process that he felt Backman misrepresented. Traditionally, a lawyer bringing a motion introduces it, the opposition gets a chance to refute the claims, and the moving attorney gets the final word. Garman's protests led to another round of back and forth at this hearing, and it seemed to expose the attorney's nervousness.

My personal impression of Garman's tactics--though certainly swayed by my intimate knowledge of the case and his basic character--left me convinced that he is running out of confidence on this one. He let the judge, Backman, and the few in attendance at the hearing see him sweat Friday. Backman, even when he was at a loss for words, came across as perpetually relaxed in his tone, speaking with the conviction of someone who knows he is right.

Backman wore a sharp suit that seemed a little too big for him Friday, but he filled the courtroom with the authority in his voice. He called the evidence debacle "one of the most egregious discovery violations I've ever seen." He seemed to have trouble even fathoming a world where sanctions would not apply to what his opposition's been caught in the middle of. Judge King conceded that there was no question he had the power apply sanctions, but he also said he wanted to know "the source" of that power. There are multiple categories and tiers of sanctions based on certain litigation behavior. Whatever stream of relief is applicable here will be best suited to become the basis for a formal order on the matter. Judge King seems to be thinking ahead about not wanting his order appealed if he sides with Backman.

Backman described the discovery difficulties as a "shocking development" in the case and confessed, "I want this case to be over." He further explained he had no vendetta or personal issues with Garman or his clients. "A serious mistake was made here," he stated plainly at one point.

Garman, in his second crack at a response to the charges against him and his clients, reported that he'd never been engaged in "such contentious litigation." He called Garman's strategy a "fabricated emergency." He insisted Backman's allegations did not mesh with the established record in the case and that he and his clients "did comply" with the discovery process. "I took this case exceptionally seriously," he said before listing off a series of numbers quantifying how many documents were turned over to Backman and when. He argued that some of the same emails Backman recovered from the Gordon Biersch subpoena were volunteered by other defendants in the case on previous occasions.

Garman went on to contend that he's gone out of his way to try to offer Backman concessions in the wake of the discovery mess. He told the court he was willing to expand the discovery process and allow further depositions of key witnesses but Backman refused these options. Garman also spent a considerable amount of time harping on the $150 million Cott offer being insignificant since it never actually materialized.

The question Garman seemed to miss in his explanation of the multi-million dollar Cott purchase offer is why it went away so fast after a meeting between Xyience insiders and the Cott folks in Canada. The deal didn't dissolve for no reason. There's no witness testimony as of this point in this litigation that adequately gives the exact reason why the $150 million offer came off the table and why it's not suspicious that people associated with Cott ended up with an ownership interest in the company anyway. Still, Garman insisted that if there was any conspiracy involved in this case it was "a conspiracy in the light of day" and his clients were open and honest about their intentions and actions.

The record simply doesn't reflect Garman's explanation as the full truth. The shifty approach to discovery adds more suspicion to what's already a clear-cut case of deceptive practices involved in the takeover and bankruptcy of Xyience by the Fertitta group. Garman also made the mistake of calling Former Xyience Co-CEOs Adam Frank and Kirk Sanford cooperating witnesses in Backman's case. Backman clarified that while Sanford and Frank agreed to provide information and evidence without the need for subpoenas and settled their own adversary cases, they are still "co-conspirators" in the case and will be treated accordingly.

Perhaps the most pretentious portion of Garman's argument on Friday was his framing of Backman as being dishonest for not holding up his end of a bargain struck at a previous hearing to split the costs of restoring computer drives that were reportedly destroyed by a system crash at Xyience. The agreement between attorneys came to pass only because the drives were represented to Backman as the ones with the company's crucial email servers contained within them. It turned out the drives were essentially worthless once they were restored and did not contain any email records whatsoever. So, essentially Garman wants full payment on a debt for services provided that were wholly misrepresented by him and his clients.

Judge King admitted not even bothering to read previous filings I presented to the court when it came time for hearings regarding those matters. I came into Friday's hearing not expecting him to give Backman much more of a fair shake. He surprised me when he picked up on a nuance neither side considered up to that point.

Focusing on Bullard's lack of record preservation related to his emails, Judge King pointed out that Bullard was savvy enough to know that being on Xyience's board of directors would require him to fulfill certain fiduciary responsibilities including keeping accurate records. Yet, at the same time, Bullard insisted that he did not save certain material because he did not anticipate being named in litigation. Bullard pointed to the liability issues he would be embroiled in as his reason for not wanting to be on Xyience's board as a formal member. So, the evidence shows Bullard purposely avoided being held accountable for accurate record keeping at one point and yet he still claims not keeping and volunteering crucial emails was an honest and innocent mistake.

Garman did not seem to have any adequate explanation for that reality. He later wondered aloud why both sides were spending so much money on a sanctions motion and requested a trial date at "the earliest possible date." Depending on how dueling summary judgment motions end up impacting the case once they are heard in December, the two sides will face each other at trial the week of April 9th, 2012. Before then, Backman will pursue some other serious evidence issues through additional motions for relief.

It's clear that Backman's approach has Garman flustered and desperate for a rush to judgment before the case gets out of hand. His clients are in a precarious position at this point, and it's not looking like conditions will ever improve. The Fertitta attorney was clearly off his game on Friday, apparently the result of knowing that the longer this case goes on, the worse he and his clients will look in the end.

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2011-10-03T18:22:00.000-07:00

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XYIENCE BANKRUPTCY TRUSTEE FINDS DAMNING EVIDENCE AGAINST FERTITTAS, PUSHES FOR SANCTIONS THIS FRIDAY

2011-09-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

By: Rich Bergeron

Forbes dropped a gem of a story on their Web-site on September 13th about new claims leveled at the men who bankrupted Xyience. Allegations brought by the company's bankruptcy trustee, represented by Attorney Jon Backman, point to an effort to hinder the trustee in acquiring evidence in a case against Fertitta Enterprises, Zyen, and Zyen's General Manager William Bullard. What's worse, recent documents in the case reveal that company officials at Xyience and Fertitta Attorney Greg Garman hatched and executed a deceptive plot to hide or deny access to the most incriminating material.

Unfortunately, despite all this dedicated trust lawyer's hard work, the Forbes piece didn't even spell his name right. BACKMAN will ask the court for sanctions this Friday in what could be one of the most important hearings in the case so far.

One man mentioned repeatedly in the documents filed by the trustee recently is Michael Levy. Levy still works as a general manager of sorts at Xyience these days and goes by the title of Chief Financial Officer. Page 6 of a September 1, 2011 sanctions motion describes how Levy reacted to an inquiry about electronic data:

If it were a criminal case, Backman's claims could be considered obstruction of justice. Much of the controversy behind his bold claims is a direct result of the refusal of key parties to turn over critical evidence. A big issue arose when the company servers came into play. Suddenly these crucial servers containing countless emails were damaged after a system crash and would have to be repaired for 10-12,000 dollars. Constant delays seemed to plague the process by which Backman sought to seize and examine these servers and comb them for information pertinent to his case.

Despite the roadblocks thrown up by his adversaries, Backman did manage to find a few nuggets of gold while panning for truth. A company called PC911 handles much of Xyience's computer issues. A technician from PC911 named Chad Stone (and he's not smooth like Keith Stone) admitted to lying to support the case in a signed declaration. The admissions came during a subsequent deposition on May 4, 2011. The Trustee's Counsel called Stone's written declaration "Pure Fiction." Backman went as far as to suggest that if the legal system's design didn't protect Stone, Xyience computer specialist Devin Keays would have a case for defamation against Stone based on his false testimony about Keays. Keays was forced out of the company during Xyience's push to bankruptcy in early November of 2007. Stone falsely suggested Keays was the one to blame for the server issues.

According to the Trustee's September 1, 2011 motion:

During a Times Square meeting on November 15, 2007, within two weeks of Keays leaving the company, Adam Frank and Kirk Sanford told me personally that bankruptcy was the only solution for Xyience. Emails and other electronically stored information from this time frame is crucial to the trustee's case. If there are full backups of the servers available, they may contain some huge bits of communication between company officials like: Former Co-CEOs Adam Frank and Kirk Sanford; Zyen General Manager William Bullard; Fertitta Enterprises Owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta III; Fertitta Enterprises Lawyer Greg Garman; and CFO Michael Levy.

Eventually, the company that reportedly had possession of the drives and servers in question analyzed them, and another contracted company provided a detailed report of what they found. Upon looking at the resulting report, Devin Keays informed Backman that the company that checked the drives analyzed the wrong ones and did the work on drives the trustee already had all the information from. Apparently there was some kind of bait and switch game going on. Another Las Vegas based firm examined all the drives and found none of them had any signs of containing email server information. So the electronic information Backman initiated a campaign to discover was never even on the target drives company officials led him to. Was it a simple mistake or a bold-faced lie that led to these developments? The trustee's counsel asserts that it doesn't matter how the mishap occurred, because the evidence shows the company, their attorneys, Bullard and Levy all had a duty to preserve evidence pertaining to the bankruptcy and failed to do so. Backman calls his adversaries' behavior in the situation "by no means innocent or excusable."

Another snippet from the September 1, 2011 sanctions motion filed by Backman in the case explains further:

The motion further alleges that the principals involved in obscuring, eliminating, or inadvertently misplacing evidence in this scenario should essentially know better. At worst, they possibly engaged in this scheme intentionally, with the specific purpose of confusing and confounding the trustee's campaign to discover the truth behind the forced bankruptcy plot. Whatever the case, Backman requests compensation for being sent on the wild goose chase due to the responsibility of the named parties to protect and preserve the electronically storied information that is now unaccounted for. Backman asserts, "...defendants and their counsel repeatedly, routinely, unabashedly, and unapologetically have violated the discovery rules relating to electronically stored information as such rules are set forth in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the controlling case law, and have been for many years."

The trustee's argument makes sense, especially considering the thorough support cases he cites. Whether or not his adversaries physically destroyed or "lost" the information by accident or on purpose, they had a defined duty to make sure the information could be made available for inspection. So, whatever happened to it and wherever it is isn't the point. The fact is the company and their attorneys had an obligation to retain it and provide it when requested to do so. Even if there's no smoking gun to show the disappearance of the information was willfully orchestrated by certain parties, it is incredibly suspicious that this block of communications conveniently vanished.

The primary perpetrators of the questionable conduct associated with the entire evidence debacle, according to Backman, were CFO Michael Levy, Attorney Greg Garman, and Zyen General Manager William Bullard. These individuals acted in a manner that made the server requests and other inquiries harder to fulfill, Backman reports in the September 1, 2011 sanctions motion:

An August 8, 2011 email from Attorney Garman attempts to justify the back story behind the missing evidence. He further explains that he personally participated in fruitless searches for pertinent records that Backman requested. The Garman letter is included as Exhibit 6 to Backman's September 1, 2011 sanctions motion. The final paragraph contains language that indicates how frustrated Garman is regarding the approach of the trustee's counsel. Garman appears to have let his emotions get the better of him when he concluded the letter with the following words:

Backman includes multiple lengthy exhibits with his motion, including snippets of deposition transcripts and other documents that lay a foundation for his claims. Part of one of the later exhibits is a peculiar letter from one of the only Xyience executives I invested any good faith in at the time just before the company changed hands and entered into the foreclosure and forced bankruptcy. William Underhill had a background in restaurant management and actually helped prosecute fraud in his former work experience. Xyience tapped him to take over the company just before the final collapse. He later resigned from the board with a shot across the bow at the tactics used to cause him to walk away so suddenly, and he sent the resignation email on Halloween, 2007. His "reluctant" formal resignation letter speaks volumes with hindsight being 20/20.

Backman's own communication to multiple Fertitta Enterprises lawyers--directed primarily at Joel Z. Schwarz (left)--stood out among the rest as the last exhibit to his motion. The date of the email is October 20, 2010. The tone of Backman's message is one of clear frustration with the way Schwarz and other members of his firm are actively trying to deceive him. Click here to view the most scathing paragraph of Backman's email.

It is clear the email is a result of pent up feelings of mistrust between the tireless underdog Illinois attorney and the big city Las Vegas law dogs at Gordon Silver who are playing on a home court. These same lawyers are likely hoping the judge won't throw the book at them this Friday. That's when he will likely hear more about allegations that these well trained legal eagles avoided their responsibilities to the rule of law and obstructed the trustee's formal inquiries at every turn. A hearing in Las Vegas at the bankruptcy court will allow both sides to present their arguments for or against sanctions to apply here.

Even my name made a cameo appearance in a list of emails said to be "not relevant" to the liquidation trustee's cases. Some of the documents leading up to this last sanctions request lay out the path of evidence perfectly. A previous sanctions motion filed by Backman on August 20, 2011 featured some potent charges and even more nuggets of gold. Exhibits G (an email from William Bullard to Lorenzo Fertitta) and H (an email between Bullard and both Fertitta brothers: Frank III and Lorenzo, Click Here For Part Two) were bombshell findings, and these are the emails that were actually discovered. One can only imagine what hasn't been found yet. Where there is smoke there is fire, and it certainly appears that these guys were ready to barbecue Xyience as soon as the coals were hot enough. The conditions were ripe. There was a way to "muzzle" Xyience Founder Russell Pike according to Bullard in that Exhibit H email message chain from August of 2007. If that's not convincing enough evidence that something's rotten in Denmark, consider the relevant portions of William Bullard's deposition transcript Backman included in Exhibit S.

Friday will be an intriguing day for the trustee if the judge on the case can see the clear pattern of deception involved here. It should be a slam dunk motion, barring any hometown cooking affecting the outcome.

Xyience, UFC, Fertitta, Station Casinos, MMA, Internet Gambling Update

2011-09-29T06:20:00.000-07:00

The Headline in the Las Vegas Sun Article Says it All:

CULINARY PICKS A FIGHT WITH UFC TO GET AT STATION

It is an article by J. Patrick Coolican, a writer I haven't followed that closely. I don't think I've ever seen him in any byline for a story regarding the Brothers Fertitta. Here he starts right off by sending readers to www.unfitforchildren.org, a site set up by Culinary Union insiders to illustrate how vulgar Dana White really is.

If you like Coolican's work, I highly recommend an earlier vintage of Fertitta/UFC History from the archives of our own investigative work:

ARE STRIKEFORCE'S DAYS NUMBERED?

FULL TILT POKER FIASCO MAKES UFC BRASS GUILTY BY ASSOCIATION

Xyience Bankruptcy Trustee Finds Damning Evidence Against Fertittas, Pushes For Sanctions This Friday

If you want a unique perspective on fighter sponsorship Ben Fowlkes has the best recent piece on the subject:

THE TRUTH ABOUT FIGHTERS AND SPONSORS

Hardy's UFC Life Xtended Due to Xyience Sponsorship Deal

2011-08-23T01:33:00.000-07:00

By: Rich Bergeron

Dan "The Outlaw" Hardy is a true Xception to the so-called "three strikes rule" often used to Xpell fighters from the UFC when they suffer three straight losses in the octagon.

Hardy's losing effort in the main event of UFC Live 5 against Chris "Lights Out" Lytle was his 4th loss in a row, something Dana White usually responds to by releasing a fighter as quickly as possible. Yet, when Hardy went down in the third-round by submission, the decision to keep or cut Hardy was left out of the Baldfather's hands. Instead, Lorenzo Fertitta saved the day for Hardy with a single tweet. The MMA media quickly set about analyzing and criticizing the UFC for not letting Hardy go, but none of the major outlets seemed to be able to figure out the real reason (see image at left) Dan Hardy is being retained as a UFC fighter. None of the pundits in either the print or television sports media bothered to take a moment to ask, "Why did Lorenzo Fertitta make the call to keep Hardy instead of Dana White?"

The fact is, Dan Hardy's Xyience sponsorship is what really kept him from getting cut. See that UFC label on the Xenergy fruit punch can above that Hardy is prominently featured on? There's got to be at least hundreds of thousands of those cans either in circulation or yet to be distributed by Xyience. It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that Xyience is owned by Fertitta Enterprises, and the Fertitta brothers are of course the majority owners of the UFC. Xyience-sponsored fighters are company men in more ways than one. They can do no wrong, especially in this case where Hardy is literally the face of Xyience's popular Xenergy brand. Another Xyience-branded fighter claimed recently that about 85-percent of MMA fighters are using performance enhancing drugs.

Hardy's fight against Chris Lytle turned out to be a landmark last fight for Lytle, who told Hardy at the weigh in that he intended to retire after the match. Lytle specifically told Hardy he wanted to make it a good battle to go out on, which obviously called for plenty of toe to toe action. Hardy obliged and tried to outbox a former pro boxer, which didn't work out in his favor despite a few bright spots. The whole fight just seemed too happy and magical for Lytle when the smoke cleared. Stories after the fight centered around Lytle ending his career on a high note. Other fighters were forced to take notice and told to try to follow Lytle's example of how to retire properly. It seemed Hardy was in a lose-lose situation going into the fight. If he beat Lytle up he'd spoil the legend's leaving the league on good terms. If he lost he risked getting cut, or at least that's what he must have imagined his fate would be. Hardy actually seemed surprised that he wasn't voted off the island after the loss, and he hinted at his own possible retirement in promising to take some time off to reinvent himself.

John "Doomsday" Howard was quick to call foul at the three strikes rule causing him to lose his job when Hardy was allowed to stick around after losing four consecutive fights. The double standard even led Howard to challenge Hardy on YouTube. Howard's last three fights were long battles against Matt Brown, Thiago Alves, and Jake Ellenberger. If Howard had been sponsored by Xyience, would he still be working in the octagon? Maybe so, but after the cut it's a bad idea for him to call out a company man like Dan Hardy and expect the UFC brass to bite.

Hardy's good fortune didn't end with Lorenzo's decision to keep him around. He also netted a $65,000 fight of the night bonus. Hardy's loss by submission also gave Lytle the chance to bolster his retirement fund with $130,000 in bonus money, adding a submission of the night bonus to his half of the fight of the night honors. Looking back it all just seems too perfect, almost as if the fight was fixed.

Only Hardy's genuine disappointment gave the impression that he really did do his absolute best to win the fight. He even hinted in his post-fight commentary that he was glad the UFC was going to give him "one more fight." Just in case he loses that next opportunity to prove himself he let it be known he was going to take his $65k back to the UK and go on hiatus for a while. This, of course, will give Xyience plenty of time to sell off their remaining fruit punch "collector cans" of Xenergy featuring Dan Hardy's face on them.

The boxing game helped coin the phrase "tomato can" to represent an easy opponent to beat. Dan Hardy's losing streak is starting to make "Xenergy can" sound like the best MMA equivalent of that label. He might even cause other Xyience sponsored fighters to refuse to have their faces plastered on future Xenergy cans for fear of the whole streak representing a Xyience curse akin to the Madden NFL and Sports Illustrated cover curses that plagued other sports teams and players in the past. Whatever happens next, look for the preferential treatment of Hardy to persist as long as fruit punch Xenergy is still on store shelves.

FTC INVESTIGATION OF UFC IS NO RUMOR

2011-06-16T15:34:00.000-07:00

By: Rich Bergeron

The three letters that changed the mixed martial arts landscape and put the sport on the map in the first place are U-F-C. Not only do those three letters stand for Ultimate Fighting Championships, but they also have been used by many fans to represent and encompass the entire sport of MMA. All too often I've heard even small-scale local shows that have no affiliation with the UFC referred to by patrons as "UFC fighting." Across the world MMA is also known as "Ultimate Fighting."

These realities were present long before the parent company of the UFC purchased the outfit's most powerful competitors, yet it seems that Zuffa's always been intently focused on maintaining and improving their top-dog status in the world of Mixed Martial Arts. Over the years this juggernaut has grown from an obscure, barbaric, and controversial outfit into a widely accepted and heralded business model working on gaining world MMA domination by any means necessary.

No pinnacle Zuffa reaches ever seems to be enough, and the initial $2 million investment in the company by Frank Fertitta III and his brother Lorenzo Fertitta has since been paid back more than 1,000 times over. Three little letters started it all, though they were three letters the Fertittas and their friend Dana White never actually created themselves. The UFC actually started as someone else's vision, someone who didn't have the friends or partners with the tens of millions of dollars it would take to turn the fledgling, struggling sport into a ruthless, all-powerful business.

Three other letters are now looming large to threaten the UFC's complete supremacy and question how the Zuffa banner came to corner the entire market. Those letters are FTC, and they stand for Federal Trade Commission. There have been some articles and blog posts in recent days speculating on supposed "rumors" of an FTC investigation regarding potential anti-trust violations and monopoly concerns that could target the UFC's parent company Zuffa, LLC. Let's put the rumors to rest right now and stop the speculation once and for all.

The Federal Trade Commission has plenty to be concerned about regarding Zuffa's business practices. Sources I speak to regularly confirmed to me last week that the FTC already started an intense investigation into Zuffa and will likely come up with sufficient evidence to file a complaint. Even though it seems that it's mainly boxing industry insiders being blamed for dumping on the UFC's parade, Dana White's openly complained that some of his loudest pugilism-oriented critics are simply copycats and "cry-babies:"

Ariel Helwani, the masterful interviewer who may well be the most recognized MMA reporter on the planet, also broke the story regarding the Zuffa buyout of Strikeforce. During the exclusive one-on-one session with Dana White that helped the UFC explain the Strikeforce purchase, Helwani managed to get White to say the words "business as usual" a total of ten times. This all seemed like Deja Vu to many of the MMA media members who are not on Dana White's top ten list of go to guys he calls to get the word out on a big development.

White's hollow Strikeforce promises sounded strikingly similar to what he said would happen when Zuffa purchased PRIDE from that ciruit's Japanese owners. Instead of holding "Superbowl" events featuring UFC fighters facing PRIDE vets, Zuffa wound up dissolving PRIDE amid a torrent of controversy and legal wrangling. The really dedicated MMA journalists out there like Zach Arnold of Fightopinion.com are not out to please the Zuffa brass enough to get exclusive access. They simply want to educate the fan base and keep them in the loop about what's actually happening behind the scenes rather than simply spouting what White and the Fertitta brothers may want you to hear.

Notice how Dana White would not answer Helwani's question about the government's interest in Zuffa's business practices. Helwani, to his credit, made sure White addressed the question but didn't go far enough to press him for a yes or no about whether White's been approached by anyone in the government. Whether Dana's been given the third degree by investigators or not, the fact is the FTC has a long list of potential avenues to travel down in their investigation. Officials from that agency are already interviewing key witnesses to contract issues and other antitrust and monopoly concerns that continue to play second fiddle to the burgeoning debate about New York state's refusal to regulate mixed martial arts.

My own piece of the pie relating to Xyience shows beyond any reasonable doubt that Zuffa's principals have been using Xyience sponsorships and the intimate relationship with their sponsor to perpetrate insider dealing. The Xyience stable of UFC fighters is expanding rapidly, and since Fertitta Enterprises is the actual owner of Xyience at this point the company policy actually forbids sponsorship of any other league or sport. Though the company is still embroiled in an ongoing bankruptcy litigation steaming toward a trial date later this year, some of the UFC's top level fighters sport the Xyience brand proudly and seem to get preferential treatment for doing so. Meanwhile, a bevy of fighters sponsored by Xyience prior to the bankruptcy are conspicuously absent from the current company roster of marquee fighters. Misrepresenting the strength of Xyience is also an issue at the heart of a senior secured credit facility that allowed the UFC to borrow the money to acquire PRIDE in the first place.

There are multiple reasons for the FTC to look into Zuffa's conflicts of interest regarding the Fertittas' ownership of Xyience. At the same time this intriguing sponsorship push by the reorganized Xyience is taking place, other sponsors have been locked out of the UFC cage for one reason or another. If certain fighters are perhaps being forced to enter into sponsorship agreements to gain special treatment from Zuffa brass or forced to drop other sponsors that compete with preferred sponsors like Xyience, the FTC and the Justice Department should take a close look at this unhealthy scenario. It's called "tortious interference" when a business inserts itself into a contract unfairly and/or exerts undue influence to make or break a contract. Looking back through the UFC's history it's not hard to find multiple examples where fighters were forced into making certain agreements to appease the bosses. One example is Dana White's ultimatum to the UFC organization's fighters forcing them to sign over lifetime rights to their likenesses to a video game manufacturer or be fired. If that isn't textbook tortious interference, I don't know what is.

The UFC did not gain top-dog MMA league status through acquisition alone. They also sold a slice of the business to an Abu Dhabi entity that has endless financial resources. Additionally, the Zuffa brass employs an army of lawyers in numerous venues who seem to be retained in order to sue competitors for even the slightest appearance of impropriety. Few brave souls who sued on their own or counter-sued have been able to gain much ground filing suit against Zuffa, though, especially in light of the Fertitta family's influence on the Nevada judiciary and political landscape.

The Fertitta family and their Station Casinos chain provides regular political campaign donations, and Nevada is a state where many judges are elected to office rather than appointed. The Nevada wheels are thoroughly greased in favor of the UFC due to the Fertitta connection and their generosity to the campaigns of judges, including the first judge to oversee my own case brought by Xyience. Judge Timothy C. Williams was endorsed for the bench by Station Casinos, which also helped distribute election pamphlets on his behalf. It's no surprise Judge Williams was recently over-ruled by an appeals court in another case which had the potential to damage a Station Casinos entity. Not even Mark Cuban's money could stop Nevada from favoring the Fertittas in the case of Randy Couture's contract dispute that Cuban attempted to assist with. Cuban's now a bondholder on the UFC's Senior Secured Credit Facility that paid for the PRIDE purchase and provided huge dividends for Dana White and the Fertitta Brothers.

Initial reports regarding the FTC's potential to come after the UFC seem to focus exclusively on antitrust and monopoly concerns stemming from the Strikeforce purchase. The reality is there are countless bigger picture issues, and the FTC and Justice Department won't hesitate to explore the possibility of filing a major, comprehensive complaint that considers various charges that go far beyond the Strikeforce deal. Some witnesses are being interviewed for hours at a time by a panel of investigators and interrogators who want to know the whole story behind Zuffa's operations, and that tells me these government employees are serious and committed to going full circle on this effort. They won't simply stop at inquiring about the issues currently being aired in the "lamestream" MMA media. Consider the FTC's stated powers by law:

The Commission may" prosecute any inquiry necessary to its duties in any part of the United States" (FTC Act Sec. 3, 15 U.S.C. Sec. 43) and may"gather and compile information concerning, and to investigate from time to time the organization, business, conduct, practices, and management of any person, partnership, or corporation engaged in or whose business affects commerce, excepting banks, savings and loan institutions * * * Federal credit unions * * * and common carriers * * *." (FTC Act Sec. 6(a), 15 U.S.C. Sec. 46(a)).

Odds are there will be plenty of dirt to dig up through talking to the people who know where all of Zuffa's bodies are buried. Though the FTC will likely never publicly admit they're taking a hard look at Zuffa before a complaint drops, it can't be a coincidence that so-called "rumors" are being spread about their curiosity. Where there is smoke there is fire, and if the FTC goes after Zuffa with all of their resources it will only be a matter of time before the resulting inferno burns Dana White's bald head and the rest of the company brass. For once they might be in a situation where their political campaign donations and lobbying efforts won't help in the long run. For once their opponent across the courtroom won't have less money to spend pressing their case. Whether it becomes a civil case or a criminal one--or both--remains to be seen, but a case will most surely materialize in due time.

The only problem seems to be that whatever happens as the saga unfolds, it seems exceedingly impossible to conceive a scenario in which any complaint will result in any actual accountability shown by the Zuffa powers that be. Perhaps the company will pay a hefty fine or a select few high-level co-conspirators will get into a bind with potential criminal charges, but slick lawyers with huge retainers will make sure to save the day either way. Whatever changes might be mandated due to the crackdown will likely make minimal difference since so much of the damage has already been done. Only in a perfect world will we see any public congressional hearings or any corporate crooks in silver bracelets.

What's far more likely is fighters will continue to be screwed by Zuffa management into conceding better benefits and pay days in order to stay under the UFC/Strikeforce banner. Rather than rely on fair compensation from the league, these cage warriors will continue to rely on sponsorships for day to day expenses for training and costs of living. Many of those sponsors will also continue to be forced to jump through hoops and pay out of deep pockets to be in a position to even approach and deal with Zuffa's stable of combatants. Dana White will go right on calling his critics "idiots" and be seen as an everyman who speaks his mind and tells it like it is. He'll keep denouncing unions and making moves to prevent his fighters from ever considering creating their own union, which they may need now more than ever. But...the real journalists who come from the kind of background that only leads to blacklisting for truth-telling will always know the real story too many others are afraid to tell for fear of losing access. That tale casts Dana White and his cronies in a light that makes Don King look like a saint.

I, for one, hope the FTC proves me wrong.

Check Out This Self-Help Legal Blog

2011-05-25T05:55:00.000-07:00

UFC and Station Casinos Facing New Battles

2011-05-13T21:54:00.001-07:00

By: Rich Bergeron

The UFC and Station Casinos have both been making headline news over the past few weeks. The two entities typically keep their operations wholly unique without any major overlap. Yet, in many ways these two companies with brothers Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta III at the helm have been suffering from some of the same woes. While the brass at Station Casinos grapple with local Culinary Union workers and a massive National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Complaint against the casino chain, the UFC recently held a fighter summit at Red Rock Casino (A Station Casino property) and announced measures that appear designed to make sure a fighter's union never materializes. The unspoken message to the MMA practitioners in attendance seemed to say to all of them that the one thing UFC definitely doesn't stand for is Union Friendly Company.

As far as Station Casinos and their union troubles, it seems that they literally have no defense in the NLRB case. Casino brass recently brought back two employees fired for union organization efforts in what looks like a clear surrender, potentially opening the door to further appeasement efforts. Culinary Workers Union President Geoconda Arguello-Kline pointed out recently that the "We love Locals" motto of Station Casinos comes across as slick and disingenuous due to how the company's been treating their union-friendly staff over the years. Arguello-Kline explained, “It is truly alarming that a company which claims to love locals has had the federal government step in to ensure that workers are not retaliated against for exercising their rights under federal labor laws.”

Culinary Local 226 has been anything but quiet about their concerns, and their president seems to have a point about the casino chain's company slogan hiding the real issues related to attempts to unionize. After all, the most recent union protest on March 24, 2011 inspired a response from the company that included rolling out a chain of three "We Love Locals" billboard trucks to mask a 1,000-member, two-mile march from union headquarters to Palace Station. 100 of those 1,000 "Locals" were arrested for trying to block the entrance of the casino during the protest.

Whatever happens with the NLRB complaint, it seems highly unlikely that any company executives responsible for the anti-labor climate at Stations will leave their offices in handcuffs. Like the fat cats on Wall Street who saw their companies pay fines their personal, irresponsible behavior inspired, the most culpable company employees at Station Casinos will probably get off with no real punishment at all. Ths is despite the fact that the original 166-count complaint featured charges of threats, intimidation, interrogation, surveillance, bribery, discouragement, discrimination, discipline and even physical assault to thwart workers efforts to form a union. Yet, any resolution of these disturbing issues is most likely to involve the company being forced to pay fines and institute changes that will make it easier for workers to organize without repurcussions and retaliation.

Station Casinos was once labeled as one of the 100 best companies to work for by Fortune Magazine. Yet, despite the union issues and a highly contentious bankruptcy process, the Fertitta brothers remain high on another important list. Both Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta III had no trouble making the Forbes list again this year with both said to be worth around a cool billion. Though they slipped a few spots in the heirarchy of that rich list, the favorable outcome to the bankruptcy put nearly all of their financially-stressed properties back under their control. They even went on a hiring spree and launched a huge giveaway of cars and cash before instituting reorganization plans revealing they might not even end up paying for most of what they gave away to generate business.

It's hard to believe this is the same company that at one point planned to build a $10 billion development featuring three hotels and casinos at the site of the Wild Wild West motel and casino on Tropicana Avenue and Interstate 15. (concept photo at left)

The project also reportedly included a possible plan to place an arena on site. The concept was even championed by a Deutsche Bank official, which is ironic considering that's one of the same institutions now left holding the bag for a great deal of the casino chain's massive debt load. That huge amount of Station Casinos debt that led to the company's bankruptcy was racked up and steadily growing out of control long before the "Viva" resort plans hit the presses. Just acquiring the target land area for the proposed--and now likely doomed--development cost the Fertittas $335 million over a ten-year span.

Considering the completely irresponsible handling of the company's business by the Fertitta Brothers, it's no surprise that their lenders are now challenging the family's buyback of Green Valley Ranch for $500 million, which would eliminate $378 million in debt. It seems to be perfect timing considering the UFC, owned by the same Fertitta brothers, is flying high enough to help out with some of the big ticket buybacks of these highly-distressed properties. The UFC's success has been so pronounced that there was even enough cash flow to buy the next best fight league on the market. To keep the UFC gravy train flowing, though, it's going to take more than the acquisition of a major competitor like Strikeforce.

To really take heed of the lessons learned by Station Casinos' union struggles and bankruptcy, the Fertittas will have to focus more on saving money than spending it when it comes to operating the UFC. Though there is no current fighter union taking shape at this point, some recent decisions made by UFC brass indicate that it's something the organization seems concerned about. It can't help that one of their Strikeforce stars, Nick Diaz, is working on scheduling a boxing match with Jeff Lacy this fall. So, fighter payment is sure to take center stage as a contentious issue that must be dealt with soon if the Fertittas and Dana White intend to avoid the formation of any union.

The UFC took the first step in the union-prevention direction by announcing a new accident insurance offering designed to assist fighters who suffer injuries during training. The news came at a time when the injury bug hit the league square in the face after two marquee fighters (Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard) wound up having to pull out of their main event fight scheduled for UFC 130. Frankie Edgar's broken ribs and Gray Maynard's busted knee will be taken care of under the new plan. Prior to the additional coverage being offered, fighters were only insured by the league for actual fight injuries. Outside of training injuries, fighters will also enjoy benefits if they are involved in non-training accidents that require medical treatment.

Still, other developments in the sport recently seem to point to a potential need for even more coverage for unforseen health circumstances fighters may face. Bryan Baker's proposal to his girlfriend at a Bellator event recently paled in comparison to the news of what he had to fight through to get to that point. A Dave Meltzer report in the wake of the engagement story sweeping the Internet also revealed Baker's battle with Leukemia and how he concealed the cancer diagnosis through three competitive fights. Brock Lesnar's bouts with Diverticulitis are also making waves lately, and the condition led Lesnar to back out of a planned match-up with Junior Dos Santos. Though many reports since the latest TUF coach fight was called off speculate on whether this could lead to Brock's retirement, nobody seems to be asking whether or not the UFC should be helping him with his medical bills. If they expect him to toe the company line in his post-fight speeches and keep him from making any return appearances with the WWE, what's so outrageous about expecting the league to step up and take care of his health woes? Of course, Lesnar might not be the best example since he is such a huge draw and one of the most well-paid fighters in the UFC. He's not likely struggling to pay his outside health insurance premiums, and it's not as if he's forced to turn to Obamacare to get by. Still, if it can happen to a guy like him who's been an athlete nearly all his life and is the picture of fitness, it can really happen to anyone. If the new plan doesn't cover these types of unforseen circumstances, it is probably only a matter of time before that type of insurance will prove essential.

Providing all fighters comprehensive health and dental benefits is just one way to stave off the formultion of any fighter's union. Another method utilized recently by Dana White involves demonizing union efforts and painting the Culinary Union's parent company (UNITE HERE) as the enemy to furthering the acceptance of the sport in a key state. White made headlines recently after calling attention to "union idiots" in New York spending money to oppose MMA's regulation there. UNITE HERE is lobbying against the sport in New York state due to multiple issues unions typically work to address on behalf of their members. A memo, put out by UNITE HERE members and mentioned in the above-linked story, points to problems specifically caused by the "near monopoly" the UFC created by purchasing Strikeforce.

Fighter pay and contract issues do seem to be legitimate reasons for UNITE HERE's opposition to MMA, though the Station Casinos case against the Culinary Union is also clearly an indirect contributor. The UFC and Station Casinos often neglect to keep their businesses from overlapping, so it's no coincidence Red Rock Casino hosted the most recent fighter summit that sought to quell many of the issues calling attention to the potential need for a fighters' union. It's also no coincidence that the same Fertitta brothers who don't seem to want their casinos to become union shops are also concerned enough to make moves that give the impression that they care about their UFC fighters as much as any fighters' union would.

The official UFC response to UNITE HERE's opposition (see above-linked article) cites the many union-friendly companies who are both employed by and benefit from UFC events and business practices. This is the "ultimate" height of hypocrisy that seems to be saying on one hand it's OK to support unions under certain circumstances while on the other hand the UFC brass makes every effort to avoid a fighters' union penetrating the organization and the UFC's majority owners don't even mount a defense to a sweeping civil indictment of their union-busting tactics at Station Casinos.

New York Assemblyman Bob Reilly was already a staunch opponent of MMA's regulation in New York state before hearing Dana White's "union idiots" chatter after UFC 129. Since Reilly admittedly received many donations over the years from various unions, he was obviously offended by White's union bashing and attempts to link the Culinary Union issue to the regulation debate. The fact is, since White's tirade against the Culinary Union the UFC brass seem much more concerned than they ever were before about unions, their power to negotiate, and the concept of losing the battle against union related issues plaguing their organization to the point where a fighters' union becomes inevitable.

One issue also plaguing the UFC of late has nothing to do with unions, but it could prove to be more damaging to the league than contract or insurance issues could ever be. Chael Sonnen's recent indefinite suspension by the California State Athletic Commission calls attention once again to the Steroids issue that cast a pall over other sports like Baseball in recent years. The prosecution of Barry Bonds illustrated that the government takes the issue of lying about steroid use seriously enough to spend more on that case than it has in pursuing many perpetrators of massive fraud on Wall Street. A recent report citing the United States Anti-Doping Agency's criticism of the UFC's drug testing policies raises some serious questions. Situations like Chael Sonnen's pathetic "hyper Gonadism" excuse for injecting 4 times the legal limit of Testosterone before his fight with Anderson Silva would have and should have encouraged a more involved investigation by the UFC itself if they indeed were intent on keeping Steroids out of the league. Instead, it appears that the UFC's casual attitude toward Sonnen's attempt to find a loophole to break the rules forced the CSAC to attempt to right that wrong for them.

Tyler Tygart, chief of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, advocates more stringent testing for steroids, and he points out that the UFC brass is engaging high-powered lawyers to argue against blood testing. The different regulatory bodies in the many locales the UFC travels to often have exclusive rules when it comes to testing for performance enhancing drugs. Some venues allow the UFC to do their own testing, which could create a look-the-other way climate for certain cards. Essentially, the UFC brass could decide to accept or act indifferently to PED use in the name of getting more exciting performances out of their fighters. There are already accusations that cards in Nevada (Where the UFC's parent company Zuffa and Station Casinos are both based) offer far less stringent testing than states like California. It seems that far more fighters who are caught in positive drug tests after fights are nabbed outside of Nevada even though the UFC has gone to great lengths to promote a high number of cards in their home state. Former Nevada State Athletic Commission officials are entrenched in the UFC, including Lorenzo Fertitta, who is one of the company's majority owners and also a former commissioner.

If any major government investigation on PEDs infiltrates UFC fighter circles and takes aim at Nevada in particular, the results could be extremely damaging. Union concerns and fighters like Nick Diaz turning to boxing for a better payday could wind up being small potatoes if that happens. The sad fact is the UFC brass, particularly the Fertittas, are used to both getting their way in their home state and throwing money around to get their way when they need to solve problems away from home. Once a major investigatory agency decides to dig deeper and refuses to allow money to trump justice, all the corrupt and subversive tactics the league's bigwigs have been getting away with could all come crashing down on their heads.

Don't forget the recent busts involving online casino giants like PokerStars.Com, which the UFC's majority owners just made a huge deal with not long after taking over Strikeforce. Strikeforce once counted PokerStars as a major sponsor, and that relationship opened the door for Station Casinos to negotiate an agreement to work together with PokerStars in lobbying efforts to legalize online gambling in Nevada. When government agencies stepped in and took over the online gambling entities, the Fertittas backed off their deal. The fact that the Fertittas didn't get deeply involved enough to be embroiled in the money-laundering and other accusations facing the online casinos was perhaps their first close call in what could be more major legal issues in the future if the next time they don't happen to be so lucky.

The Wonderful Pom Return Bomb

2011-03-31T05:47:00.000-07:00

10-main

Exhibit 1

Exhibit 2

Exhibit 3

Exhibit 4

Exhibit 5

The "Blue Pom" Pre-emptive Strike

2011-03-31T05:39:00.000-07:00

1-main

1-1

1-2

The Lennon Tapes

2011-03-31T04:20:00.001-07:00

The following tape is from a conference call held with all Xyience employees who could attend by phone or in the room about what John Lennon, the Xyience, Incorporated President, called a distraction....emails to all employees about the company's past, it's history, and the $25 million suit against me all based on lies...

I just wanted to talk to Lennon, hear it straight from him. I actually told him if I didn't talk to him in person, I'd be talking to him in front of a judge, or something to that effect. Turns out that came true, and that's when we first spoke face to face. Those tapes will come later. For now, listen to Lennon sell the troops a few loose lines about who I am and what I do.

Muzicons.com

The Dark Tower Vs. The House That Truth Built

2011-03-09T00:54:00.000-08:00

By: Rich Bergeron

The First Epistle to Timothy in the New Testament (1 Timothy 6:10) contains the phrase, "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil."

This past Monday morning I was invited to the dimly-lit 9th floor of 3960 Howard Hughes Parkway in Las Vegas where the posh firm of Gordon Silver's law offices are located. Lined by tall, stocky palm trees, the path to this ivory tower is a masterpiece of construction in itself. Standing in the shadows of the building housing the legal powerhouse that employs my main adversary in the pending Xyience bankruptcy case, I probably should have been at least mildly intimidated. Instead, a reserved sense of calm righteousness enveloped me as I entered the elevator and said to my fellow passenger, "9, please."

Having spent almost a full month in Las Vegas when I only planned at first to stay a few days, this type of meeting didn't seem probable or even possible when my arrival flight touched down at McCarran Airport on the morning of February 9th. Yet, all of a sudden there I was sitting across from Gregory Eugene Garman, a managing partner of the firm. The meeting room was darker than the lobby, and the dozens of sleek, black leather chairs ringing the gigantic marble conference table were a stark reminder that I was in the belly of a great financial beast. A director of the firm sat next to Garman, said little, and furiously jotted down notes as we talked.

The first order of business was a bit of paperwork: an agreement Garman requested I sign confirming I knew he was not consenting to having our conversation recorded. I dutifully signed it and told both men I had no intention to record the session.

The subject of this little gathering was to hash out a compromise on an injunction proposed by Garman due to my dedicated and somewhat overzealous campaign to leave no stone unturned in a search for the truth behind the scandal that led to the downfall of Xyience, Incorporated. This is a story I've devoted more than four years of my budding journalism career to, and it's one that also kicked off my experience as a pro-se attorney. The latest in a long line of judges who had a chance to impact this case at one stage or another ruled at our last hearing that we should coordinate to create an agreeable order he would then make final edits to. Instead of compromise, Garman seemed more intent on making ultimatums and veiled threats he made a point to characterize as simple realities of the situation. It was obvious to me that my reaction to these tactics frustrated this "Super" lawyer who was likely used to getting his way with other clients who required the services of their own high-powered and high-priced attorneys at meetings just like this one.

The bulk of the time we spent across from one another featured no compromising of any sort, though. Instead, it was more like a debating contest. He toed the party line of the clients who paid him hourly wages to make them look spotless while I rattled off challenges to their credibility and character for him to explain away. Though he purported to have all the answers pointing to his clients being good citizens acting above board in all their business activities, I still managed to elicit some responses that revealed there were many aspects of his clients' operations I seemed to know more about than he did.

The most poignant moment for me, though, was when Garman confessed to being offended by the way I painted him in this blog and elsewhere. Before it was torn down by a biased judge's order in an unrelated case in Indianapolis, I started a Web-site called ScarletLawyer.Com featuring a page devoted to Garman. Garman's head-shot photo with a dark red "L" emblazoned on his forehead was a key fixture of that site. He now makes it a point at hearings to call out that effort of mine as somehow relevant to the current proceedings. The truth is, as he explained in the meeting, the site being gone now doesn't change the fact that he took the photo, the underlying description of his tactics, and many of my other methods of undermining his reputation personally.

I didn't apologize for my actions, as there was no need to. I simply smiled and pointed out how he had characterized me on the stand at the prior hearing as a "professional plaintiff" even though I've never sued anyone to initiate any case. Though part of me felt flattered to be called a professional in a field I consider myself more of an amateur in, I have never actually been a plaintiff at all. I've only ever been categorized as a "counter-plaintiff" which is rarely ever even referred to using that term. The more widely accepted label for someone who brings a cross-complaint is "counter-claimant."

Garman explained to me at one point that the Fertittas--who currently own the re-organized Xyience--are by no means his biggest clients. I took that statement to mean that he had bigger fish to fry and this case was just a nuisance to him. Still, he had a strong list of demands laid out in what he planned to put in his injunction order draft. These stipulations sought to afford his clients the "ultimate" protection he felt he could honestly argue for, even though my experience so far taught me that many of the constraints he was seeking were patently unconstitutional under the circumstances.

For one, Garman wanted all of he documents I testified to acquiring on the sly from Xyience to be returned promptly. If I wouldn't comply, he intimated his clients would press criminal charges. "You'll just have to prosecute me," I finally told him near the end of the meeting when he brought up his plan to go that route for the final time.

Another wild request he made was that I cease all contact with all past, present, and future Xyience employees. When I pointed out some shareholders I maintain regular contact with could be classified as past employees, he said he could carve the shareholders out of the equation. Still, I knew if I were going to go back to writing as he said he wanted me to do, I would have to talk to past employees who were not shareholders at some point. This was yet another demand on the list that I could not agree to.

The most heinous request of all was that I cease contact with all UFC fighters. At the first mention of that request I laughed out loud. I explained I sometimes talk to UFC fighters once a week as part of my work at unlimitedfightnews.com, and barring me from speaking to these individuals would prevent me from doing my job. He later floated the possibility of wording the injunction so that I would only be restricted from discussing Xyience with these fighters. Again, I knew speaking to certain UFC fighters would be crucial to any creative project on this story in the future, so I refused to agree to that condition as well.

Though we often drifted off point and argued the merits of our respective cases outside the injunction issues, we kept circling back to the documents more than any other topic. I think Mr. Garman expected me to be Xtremely intimidated by his insinuation that I could be prosecuted for what he classified as "theft" of that "proprietary" material. He used an analogy of giving me the key to his house and me robbing it, which would most likely still result in criminal charges. The only problem with his logic, I explained, is that it was not as if I took the only copies of these documents off the system. I also have not leaked the documents or used them in any fashion to cause any damage to the company. I simply retained them for background like off the record information obtained from a source. And, I only obtained the documents because I have sources inside the company, sources who know what I stand for and that I seek the truth behind the ongoing corruption there.

The meeting ended when it became strikingly clear that there would be no "middle ground" we could reach and no compromise on the crafting of an injunction that could be made between us. I reminded both men across the table from me at the close of our discussion that I have come this far with very little help and no comparable legal fees to what Garman was getting for his efforts. I re-iterated that he was being paid to present his clients' perspective while I was paying out of my own pocket to put mine on the table. I explained this to illustrate the fact that I had no motivation to lie or make up facts to protect me. My mission is simply grounded in uncovering the truth.

Before we parted ways, we stood in the lobby for a few awkward moments as Garman sighed and took on a look of utter frustration. I seized on that moment to explain I simply had to use the few advantages I had in this situation. Though I did confess to having a certain level of respect for the fact that my opponent was just trying to do his job, that didn't change the fact that I was still undaunted even after going through the gauntlet of all the veiled threats and harping on potential legal remedies they could seek against me if I didn't comply with Garman's demands.

It could all be chalked up as another two billable hours I paid nothing out of pocket for that his clients would likely have to pay hundreds for, which may be no sweat for billionaires, but at this point it certainly must be adding up. I left the dark tower a bit frustrated myself, especially since I'd gone to the meeting expecting the possibility of an actual compromise. Though I did manage to get a formal explanation from the other side regarding every aspect of the case I could think to ask about, I imagined a more productive outcome. Still, I could not be upset or disappointed at all in the long run. Looking back, I could only smile knowing I was never, ever expected to get this far by anyone at the outset of all this litigation. I was sued for $25 million by a corporation, and I didn't have a lick of legal experience when the case was dropped in my lap. I had no money to hire a lawyer then and little hope of winning any judgment or settlement if I fought the case myself.

To even be sitting across from those two lawyers and be treated like a real "professional" attorney was a victory in itself, and it was hard for me not to see it that way. I was every bit the fool for a client back in March of 2007, but four years of the school of legal hard knocks changed my life and the way this story is now perceived by those who take the time to read all about it. Some people put themselves through law school by waiting tables, but I did it through a total immersion experience I will never regret going through. The house that truth built started with one brick, and the cement of my resolve to see it through helped me stack new bricks on top of that foundation. One by one I built that house from nothing into something solid, something respectable, and something my opponents in their luxurious penthouse offices seemed at least for one fleeting moment to envy.

I suppose the journey I've taken is the true embodiment of the old adage "if you want something done right, do it yourself." Having come this far in actual and figurative miles, there is no possible way I can see any stumbling block as a setback. Instead, I see all difficulties now as opportunities, obstacles that will just need a little time and effort to overcome. So, come what may, I'm ready for whatever I need to face and prepared to do whatever it takes to keep up the good fight.

I hope to leave Las Vegas a little better off than the way I found it when I arrived. I hope to stem the flow of corruption by closing up a few streams off the river of scandal that runs through this town. Win or lose, these battles must be fought with all the resources I can possibly bring to bear if the war is ever to be won in any respect. And though the odds are still stacked against me, this is a war that most certainly can still be won.

Dispatch From The Desert: Xyience Scandal Widens, Prospect of Questions Scrambles Security

2011-02-21T17:47:00.000-08:00

Las Vegas and all the grand glory it presents to the world never seem to be enough to impress me. The glitz and glamour, the lights and the noise, all of it is just one giant, monstrous, intricately choreographed sideshow. It's designed at the end of the day to take your hard earned money out of your pocket and hope you waste it on a chance of luck, a chance to spin the wheel and watch it all go bye bye.

There are more than a few people out here on the fringe of the desert who take advantage of that risk taking gene all of us have but so few cultivate and sharpen to a razor point.

I was called a "purported" investigative reporter by a lawyer at my last formal hearing in the case. I decided to show him recently how professional I can really be. I'm digging up more and more dirt as I move along, and it's getting better with each day.

"We love locals" is the motto of the Station Casinos chain just coming through bankruptcy smashingly. The Fertitta family along with the Sartini family own this entity with a company called Colony Capital providing a chunk of huge capital as well.

Colony, owned by Thomas Barrack (at left), and the Ferttittas were the stalking horse bidder in the recent Station Casinos collapse, and for $772 million plus they got their own casinos back with far less debt. The original standpoint had them around $6 billion in debt. The bankrupt it and buy it back strategy worked for Xyience, and bankrupting Station Casinos in the same manner must have felt safe. They had practice.

The fact of the matter is that Xyience is a hole in the desert, and all the old junk of the Fertittas and the UFC is buried down there. I consider this company to have a red-headed step child syndrome, and the culture is to beat that child every time someone isn't looking. The bosses do it, the employees do it, and the owners do it. It happens all the time, so who cares? The shareholders were wiped clean, the creditors are begging for pennies on the dollar, and there's settlement after settlement on the official side of the bankruptcy. The lawyer fees are still likely pretty minimal compared to what they would normally face with more fierce resistance. It's all private as well, so they don't worry about the government butting in.

They TAKE AND THEY TAKE AND THEY TAKE

Now, they're giving away a car a day as part of a Station Casinos promo. I was at a Station casino not long after I arrived in Las Vegas. I was there looking to speak with the President of Xyience, as I heard he was staying there. There was no sign of him, and he wasn't listed under his real name. I did see something interesting while I was there, though. An older gentleman got in a serious argument about charges with the hotel front desk clerk. I was there no longer than 10 minutes when all that happened. I told him to mention the attorney general, and that's when the next front desk lady called me up.

I started to pick apart Xyience and find their flaws from day one, right off the airplane. First there was a cruise around their offices and warehouse facility. Then I arrived in person. Dispatches from within told me what I was doing was working wonders. The staff was meeting about me daily, sometimes having the lawyer down there to discuss it all. The "distraction" I posed was now real, as I was in their backyard suddenly. The judge's stern order in my case that I would have to appear in person for future hearings troubled me. I decided to stay in town and start doing some digging. I wanted to find out what was buried in that Xyience hole in the desert.

When an infected wound starts to get all filled with puss and blood, as disgusting as the act may be you sometimes have to just squeeze the mess out of it. You've got to get the gunk to explode out on the floor, on the wall, all over the damn place. That's what it takes. Fraud is messy, too. You have to squeeze the main players so they will force out the root of the problem. Once you get that nugget of truth and start to run with it, they will start to figure out they are in trouble. Pressing the action and seeking out answers will either result in silence, denial, or lies to cover the tracks. I got silence out of one of the main players I went after.

IS HE IN "THE CLEAR" OR NOT?

Though it seems it is legal to sell some forms of steroids and fighters don't get arrested for testing positive, the legal steroid business still seems pretty shady.

Steroids is a serious issue in fighting. MMA is seemingly sinking to the depths of the WWE with certain leagues allowing steroids to become a major contributing factor to some fighters putting on a good show in the cage. Chael Sonnen's slap on the wrist suspension for testing more than 4 times over the legal limit for testosterone is just the latest in a long line of questionable treatment for athletes who fail their drug tests.

Baseball had Barry Bonds, and he was villified, but MMA athletes don't face the same standard in the eyes of many fans. Sonnen, and others like him, are just expected to serve out their suspensions and come back. Boo birds aside, their returns are nearly certain. Why such a different view for juicers in other sports who are left with albatrosses around their necks for life?

Just don't get caught seems to be the mentality that works in MMA. Even if you do get caught, it's a formality in this day and age. The fight happening in Nevada is also reportedly an incentive to juice since the stringent testing standards in other states have been increasing while Nevada has recently been behind on initiating more involved testing. Still, the Fertittas have not yet been linked to any formal investigation regarding providing or selling steroids. The story unfolding now does link the Fertittas to looking the other way when it comes to such behavior, though.

Balco and Bonds were able to sneak under the radar with so-called "designer" steroids. It's tough to tell if that's what is at play in my own investigation. The subject of the inquiry is a Xyience employee we shall call JV, and it fits because he may not be a varsity player at this point. There's no information he's working with the knowledge of the Fertitta family or with the sanctioning of the Xyience top brass, but there is a ton of information pointing to him being involved in steroid sales.

Still, I know the Fertittas and Xyience brass know at this point that they have a person suspected of steroid sales in their employ. This individual has been reportedly banned from going to Wanderlei Silva's gym here in Vegas. While training there, JV was reportedly speaking to a strength and conditioning coach who was "fired" a couple months ago. I am seeking to speak with that individual before publishing his name, but I know who he is and where he trains now. The investigation will continue so I can figure out whether or not this is any bigger than a couple small town Vegas guys peddling roids at a low level. I'll work in the days ahead to establish what type of steroids are involved, who ese might be involved in the purchase of these steroids, and how resistant they may be to testing.

BONUS AUDIO:

http://bit.ly/gmBUwE

http://bit.ly/gZUMTZ

THE LAWYER AND THE GENERAL MANAGER

The Walrus and The Carpenter Are in Panic Mode.

It's funny how one guy can generate so much buzz. While in Las Vegas I thought it to be pretty important to go after the attorney on the case and the general manager for the Fertitta entity that ran Xyience into the ground to promote the bankruptcy. Gregory Eugene Garman seemed on the very verge of shitting his pants when I emailed the lawyer his home address in a gated community out here. He alerted his local law enforcement and his security in the community thinking I was going to show up at his doorstep. I did the same thing to General Manager of Fertitta Enterprises and Zyen, LLC "Dollar" Bill Bullard. The actual emails confirming this are as follows:

Bill Bullard
to me

show details Feb 15 (5 days ago)

Mr Bergeron,

Be advised as a result of your continued threatening and harassing phone calls to my family I have given your picture and name to security at my residence as well as local authorities. Any attempt to approach my residence or make contact with my family will be met with your arrest.

Sent from my iPhone

===========================

Greg Garman
to me

show details Feb 15 (5 days ago)

Mr. Bergeron, security at my residence and the police department have already been alerted to the threat you pose. Be advised you will be arrested should you attempt to obtain access to my neighborhood.

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 15, 2011, at 3:54 PM, "Rich Bergeron" wrote:

> OK, so you're saying now I have to find out where you live to talk to you? Can't be that hard. I found out where Bill Bullard lives.
>
> I'm not intimidated.
>
> Why is it that all you guys are afraid to answer questions? I think it's classic that ONE GUY can cause this kind of panic when I've made no threats. I'm just talking about questions. Obviously you all have something to hide.
>
> Rich

=========================

Questions put real fear in people trying to hide the truth. As much as people will hide the truth, they hate being asked about it constantly. They're always afraid one mistake will topple the whole operation. One way or another, they think they can make sure all the oysters will be eaten by cabbages and kings:

Xyience President John Lennon Running Scared From Rich Bergeron's Questions

2011-02-01T12:46:00.000-08:00

John Lennon (pictured above), Xyience's newly-minted president, took the opportunity to hold a conference call this past Monday. It was his 90th day with the company I've been studying, researching, and following for years. I began my investigation back in 2006, but my "crusade" has never enjoyed the kind of constant flow of information that exists right now. John Lennon seems to think he knows me, but he won't even talk to me. I've sent him emails, left him a message on his cell phone, and I let him know if he has nothing to hide there's nothing to worry about.

Still, John Lennon won't talk to me. He'd rather talk about me behind my back it seems. He began his 90-day celebratory call with the Xyience staff by talking about me being a "distraction" to the company. Well, the frivolous $25 million lawsuit filed against me to start this process has been nothing but distracting. I am also told Mr. Lennon tried to sell a complete lie to the entire Xyience staff attending the meeting yesterday. He said to all these employees that I am on the losing end of my case in bankruptcy court. This only proves how ignorant he really is about the whole Xyience debacle I'm wrapped up in right now.

I just settled a small portion of the case, something called a Rule 9011 claim, with the liquidation trustee for the Xyience Estate. There's no gag order on that settlement, and Mr. Lennon should know this. His lawyers obviously aren't being up front with the guy about who I am and what I've done in the case. I have a $175,000 request for summary judgment still on the table in the BK courts, and that's on top of the settlement I've already made with the trustee.

The Rule 9011 Motion itself is going to be up for an amendment hearing on February 20th in Las Vegas. New names and facts will be presented to the court if I am allowed the chance to improve that request. That sanctions motion asks for $150 million from all the inter-connected players in the scam to bankrupt and bleed out Xyience.

If I am on the losing end of this case as Mr. Lennon says I am, how come I never had to write a single check to Xyience? How come their demand for $25 million went down to $84,000 before the bankruptcy even ensued? How come they never paid the guy who sued me for them in the first place?

The reality is simply too much for these folks to accept, so they create their own fantasy world and try to live in it. I am now even hearing that they are contemplating filing a new lawsuit against me because I've sent email blasts to Xyience employees exposing the truth. So sue me, I say. I'd like to see how they plan to try to make any charges stick. I'd like to see how they handle things when they crash and burn yet again trying to hold me accountable for doing an altruistic deed. What I don't want to see is the company and their employees suffer needlessly because the brass doesn't know how to do damage control or talk straight with an investigative reporter like me.

All I asked Mr. Lennon to do was pick up the phone and give me a call. I gave him the option to avoid any complications if he was just willing to make one phone call. I even gave him the on or off the record option. I just wanted to get some honest answers to some important questions. Instead of realizing he had nothing to hide and should have no fear of talking to me, it seems like he and the rest of Xyience's upper management went into pure panic mode.

Sue me if you will, Xyience. Sue me once, sue me twice. Sue me up, sue me down. Sue me around the world in 80 days and six ways to Sunday. Just remember what all this started with and who really escalated things to this point of no return. A man who is afraid to make a simple phone call to me in order to answer a few questions is now the leader of a company with a history of corruption. He's gone ahead and made assessments about me and issued false statements of fact behind my back about my character instead of being a man about things and talking to me one on one. At some point people have to start asking what is there to hide? Why the secrecy and fear?

Either way, I have front row seats for this whole show. The leaks I already benefit from at the company give me an advantage I never had before. I also have a tremendous library of evidence I may or may not have to publish here to set the record straight. This is all in addition to another revelation involving the actual product Xyience is selling, where it actually came from, and what's actually in it. As always, stay tuned!

Xtreme, Xplosive, Xtensive New Developments

2011-01-29T11:32:00.000-08:00

By: Rich Bergeron

The X-pense report is going to be huge on this one. Lawyers will be crawling all over the Matrix. The situation at Xyience is becoming more concerning lately. The Usual Suspects are spawning new usual suspects. The con is cloning itself. I have more ins than ever.

I'm doing some digging and coming up with nuggets of gold. I'm freaking out upper management with my bold approach to fact finding, but the truth is an incredible thing. The more they crack down, the larger the cloak of secrecy over future communications becomes. The best information comes by way of secret transmission.

Lawyers come and lawyers go. Maybe a case of theirs lives on if they're lucky. Storytellers and writers always live forever, though, as soon as their work goes to print. The muck is thick, and it must be raked from time to time. I try to rake with as much tact as possible, intermingled with as much independence as the law allows me to exercise. If history repeats itself, I'll have to rake a lot more. It's what I do. Stay Tuned!

Gotta Keep It X-elerated

2010-12-30T19:46:00.000-08:00

Funny XyienceSucks.Com Spot

2010-12-23T01:11:00.000-08:00

NOT SO "TRUST" WORTHY AFTER ALL (PART 2)

2010-11-20T11:18:00.000-08:00

By: Rich Bergeron

David R. Herzog is the Liquidation Trustee for the Xyience, Inc. bankruptcy I am embroiled in out in Las Vegas, Nevada. He and I have had limited personal interaction by email and never met in person. Instead, Herzog left the meeting and conversing up to an assistant of sorts who takes care of all the details in complex cases like the Xyience saga.

Jon Backman (at left) is Herzog's counsel, and so far he's handled much of the grunt work for Herzog regarding the bankruptcy and several adversary cases filed against those who allegedly defrauded the company in past years.

I met with Backman myself this past February, and I shared a great deal of information and evidence with him. He used some of the paperwork I provided him to prosecute his cases against some of the perpetrators who swindled Xyience along the way. We worked well together while it lasted, and as we tried to hammer out a settlement, I provided a few more clues and some important insight. Over time, though, it appeared to me that Backman was stringing me along, promising to take action to help me only to fail to follow up on multiple occasions.

For instance, Backman agreed time and again that the company's initial $25 million case against me should be dismissed, starting with his first contact with me in December of 2009 (CLICK ON IMAGE BELOW TO SEE FULL SIZE):

It should have taken Backman just a few hours time to draw up a motion for dismissal, serve it, file it, and get a hearing. Instead, he apparently did nothing but ignore my case. After a while, I started to understand the reality of the situation and that this guy might not be the kind of champion lawyer he seems to want to pretend to be when he needs something.

I decided I would have to file first to get Backman and Herzog to take me seriously, as Backman insisted the maximum amount Herzog would settle for would be $5,000. Even when I agreed to that amount, though, Backman never showed me as much of a draft of any pleading. He also never provided a draft of any agreement that stipulated our terms or any written timeline for any realization of such a settlement. The communication was all only by email and by phone. Nothing with a signature. It is a prime example of flat out, pure legal delay. Backman and Herzog simply sat on this case like all the lawyers before them did.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

Eventually, I broke off communication completely with Backman. I told him I was going to block all his email accounts, and I dropped off his radar for a while. Meanwhile I compiled the legal documents it would take to blow this case wide open. During my time formulating these crucial filings, I decided it would be a good time to give Mr. Backman one last opportunity to save face for his own sake and for the estate's benefit. I sent him an email message telling him a few hints about my plans to file new material and offering one last chance for a civil conversation if he wanted to call me. Not long after I sent the message, he called. We compromised yet again (The first settlement was supposed to pay out $5,000 to drop the estate from the counterclaim and the sanctions motion claims), and Backman made another new offer:

Thanks Rich. Have you filed your amended defamation claim? If so, would you email it to me?

Do you want to do a settlement as follows:

1. I pay you $5,000 for the Rule 9011;

2. I dismiss the claims against you;

3. You are allowed to pursue the remaining defamation claim against the company (which I would defend, and perhaps we could settle down the road).

If so, then I would recommend such a resolution to the trustee.

Jon

I accepted these terms, and I made it clear I wanted Backman to move on it as soon as he could. He sent the above email to me on November 4, 2010, and we continued being civil and trying to work things out for almost two more weeks until I began to realize more pressure needed to be applied to get Backman to do anything on my case. I knew I needed to file my latest pleadings and affidavits. So, I sent Backman and Herzog everything by email first, on November 15th, although I didn't have digital copies of the exhibits for the summary judgment motion and had to send those by snail mail.

Here's most of what went out to both Backman and Herzog that day:

Xyience Case Brief in Support of Summary Judgment By Rich Bergeron

Affidavit in Support of Summary Judgment in Bergeron vs. Xyience Bankruptcy Case

Designation of Evidence For Motion For Summary Judgment

Motion For Summary Judgment

Affidavit In Support of Motion to Amend Sanctions Motion in Bergeron vs. Xyience Bankruptcy case

Xyience Case Motion to Amend Rule 9011 Sanctions by Rich Bergeron

I expected at least some kind of backlash from Mr. Backman of course, as much of the pleading material involves descriptions of my frustration with this attorney's behavior in support of fellow attorneys I'm seeking sanctions against. Instead of getting an immediate missive from the man himself, though, I was fortunate enough to get an email meant for him from the guy he was supposed to be representing: Liquidation Trustee David R. Herzog. The intercepted communication, obviously sent to me by accident, apparently never even made it to Backman's inbox. Since it was unrelated to settlement negotiations it is both admissible in court and ripe for publication, so here it is:

Gee Jon, and here I thought you were pursuing all these claims. Oh sorry I forgot, your not nearly the atty that Rich Bergeron believes he is; oh yes he is a legend in his own mind. Here is my concern, how do we get rid of this frivilous garbage without you spending gobs of time. I'm sure he doesn't comply with local rules if they are anything like the Northern District. You always told me he was crackpot, these pleadings prove it.

David

I SHOT RIGHT BACK WITH THIS:

David,

Disrespect will get you nowhere.

You probably didn't realize you sent this to me as well.

This "crackpot" gave your counsel a lot of information and
documentation on Xyience. This information helped win your cases. Mr.
Backman still doesn't even seem to know what my case is all about,
though. Neither do you.

I'm glad you just gave me more evidence that he's defamed me as well.

Not too smucking fart for a guy who's supposed to be a REAL attorney.

Good Day,

Rich

HE RESPONDED LATER (NOTE HIS MIS-SPELLING OF HIS OWN COUNSEL'S NAME) BY WRITING:

Sir,

Making threats to us does not resolve the situation. Bachman has made tremendous efforts in pursuing the litigation against the Fertitas and the other wrongdoers. Your disparaging remarks against him in your pleadings are reprehensible. What more can we do but vigorously pursue this litigation. I apologize to you for calling you a "crackpot" but let him have the peace to do his work undistracted by your litigation.

David Herzog

AFTER A FEW MORE BACK AND FORTH EXCHANGES HERZOG GAVE UP ARGUING:

Rich,

I don't want to bicker with you further, do what you think you need to do.

David

BACKMAN'S THOUGHTS ON THE LIQUIDATION TRUSTEE'S ACCIDENTAL FOOT IN MOUTH EPISODE WERE EVEN MORE REVEALING AND INTRIGUING UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES:

Rich ---

Apparently, David inadvertently sent the email to you when he meant to send it to me. Like I, he is quite distressed by what you have written in your motion to amend the sanction motion, and in the summary judgment counterclaim, both of which will distract my attention from critical matters in the Zyen/Fertitta case. I restrained my tongue because I know that getting into arguments with you about the damage you are doing to the case is pointless. But David was venting his frustration, thinking he was writing to me, but inadvertently sending it to you.

As for your comment that the remarks are slanderous, they are not because David did not publish them to anyone. They went solely to you.

David tells me that you and he exchanged further emails, but I have not seen them, so I can't comment. If you share them with me, then I will do so.

Jon

=====================================

Rich ---

I do not care whether you believe me. I did not receive David's email until you sent it to me. In fact, even when David emailed me to tell me of his error, he did not send me the email he had sent to you. As for Rule 9011, it has nothing to do with an email between an attorney and his client.

That being said, I regret that the events of today have occurred because, as you know, I have attempted to move past fighting with you, and have just accepted that you are going to do what you do --- and say what you say --- regardless of what I say. I did not like either of your motions, but I'll deal with them. There really is nothing for us to discuss about them: you have attacked my integrity, but I am a big boy and can take it. You should do the same with David's email to you and just let it go.

We'll speak soon I'm sure.

Jon

=====================================

Rich ---

I have to run to a meeting, but for the record, I never called you a crackpot. As I have told you, I believe that you are abusing the legal system with some of your pleadings, and I believe that, to some extent, because you are smart and hard-working, but severely misdirected, you can be dangerous. But I do not view you as a crackpot, and would not have used that term in describing you.

We'll speak soon.

Jon

FINALLY, BACKMAN DECIDED TO PLAY HARDBALL AND GIVE ME AN ULTIMATUM (WHICH I REFUSED TO BACK DOWN OR CAVE IN TO), OBVIOUSLY PUTTING HIS AND HERZOG'S OWN SELF-INTERESTS AHEAD OF THE ESTATE'S:

Rich ---

I don't know what you are trying to pull, but there is zero chance that the Trustee would settle your Rule 9011 claims, but let you bring a Rule 9011 motion against us the day after we paid you. We'd have to be out of our minds to do that, because then we'd be paying you $5,000 for nothing. At this point, we have not filed anything in your case, so you have no basis to file a Rule 9011 motion against either of us. In fact, if you did so, then you'd be subject to severe sanctions. And I am not going to file a settlement motion, or anything else, until you have signed an agreement saying that you will not pursue Rule 9011 motions against David or me. That was always the deal, and you know it.

Bottom line, and no further discussion: If you insist on retaining the right to pursue a Rule 9011 motion against the Debtor, the Trust Estate, David or me, then there is no settlement --- period. This is not negotiable. And if you do not accept it by 5:00 p.m. my time this evening, then our discussions are at an end, and we will cease responding to your email or speaking with you any further.

Jon

And now, because Backman and Herzog never volunteered any pleadings or demonstrated any general effort to move this case in any real direction, they use this fact as a sword against me. They claim this means they are not subject to Rule 9011 Sanctions, but they neglect to consider how liable they are for general sanctions. The problem with their backwards logic is I know the law.

The sanctions motion is not strictly a Rule 9011 motion. The motion asks the court to initiate its own ability to sanction offending parties. The pleading asks the court to provide sweeping relief for those injured by the blatant abuses of process and incessant delays wrapped up in the case. Backman and Herzog perpetrated much of the most recent delay, and at this point there is no reason not to name them to the amended motion for sanctions if I am given a chance to amend that motion.

I'LL SEE YOU IN COURT

Well, since I live thousands of miles away from the venue I won't actually see anyone in court, but I will seek a hearing and ask to appear by telephone. At that point there should be another item on the docket describing the events I've shared here. All the attorneys I've faced thus far in my budding pro-se career in law have demonstrated an extreme lack of integrity when backed into a corner. So many lawyers and people who can afford to hire them seem to live on that timeless threat, "I'll see you in court." Most of us who can't afford to engage a lawyer or don't have enough time or energy to become one end up forced to negotiate or backpedal or compromise our own integrity to deal with people who drop this threat on others with impunity.

I couldn't afford any type of legal assistance, and I wasted a lot of time trying to find it when I felt overwhelmed by this case in the early days. I did it myself, and so far that's been the best decision I've made. I don't think I'm the best lawyer on the planet or anywhere close to it. I don't think I'm a better lawyer than Jon Backman or most lawyers in practice in this country.

If I had to give my honest opinion of how good a lawyer I really am, I'd have to say I suck at it. But, then again, I don't want to be a lawyer anyway. I never did want to be one. I was forced to.

The real issue is not what kind of lawyer I am, but what kind of person I am. I'm honest, and painfully so. Some might say this high level of integrity means I could never be a proficient lawyer. Again, I don't mind, because I don't want to be an attorney anyway.

As my own legal representative, I have no attorney/client privilege. I have virtually no chance of being in front of the same judge again on another case. I won't have to face the opposing lawyer in another case, either. I don't have to make deals or play nice or rack up huge fees to fatten my paycheck. The pay is virtually non-existent and highly dependent on a favorable outcome(which has taken me longer than three years to get anywhere close to), but the work is meaningful and the victims are worth fighting for. More than anything the work I do requires a sincere and earnest sacrifice of my time for the benefit of the greater good. I have to be selfless by very nature just to keep doing it without reward or much in the way of sustainable funding. There's no guarantees, no quick fixes, and no great hope of full recovery at this rate. Yet, someone has to step up and try to do this work, anyway, and I don't see anyone else in line waiting to do it for me.

The initial shareholders of this company were swindled out of their investments. Many of them lost college funds, family trusts, and retirement savings as a result. The Fertittas promised to keep the company viable by taking their chief lien position with the help of a "private investment group." Instead, they killed the company, with help from their friends and associates. I took up the story a long time ago and tracked these transgressions from day one up to the present. I watched it all happen and warned others that it would happen before it did. I did an ominous amount of work for a microscopic amount of money. When you are in that position there is simply no time for greed or corruption to kick in if the effort is to remain true and sincere. You have to always focus on the long term, the goal to take back what was stolen from all those shareholders and their families.

I've done about as good as anyone could expect of an amateur lawyer. I've come to learn a great deal about the way the legal system works and doesn't work. I've seen how the system breaks down those who aren't willing to conform to its strict guidelines and rules. You have to be willing to get a little antiquated with your format and writing style if you want to be a halfway decent attorney, and I've spent more than a few all-nighters figuring that out the hard way. Today I'm better off because I kept trying, and I have a more compelling life story as a result of this struggle, but the journey has still been painful. The fight that rages on is still stressful and agonizing. The work never seems to get any easier.

Nobody in it for the wrong reasons could ever get this far, and one day Mr. Herzog and Mr. Backman might figure that out. They can underestimate me and dismiss my efforts as confused and misdirected all they want right now, but the truth will speak for itself in the long run. I didn't do this for fame and fortune. I don't have a greedy bone in my body.

I don't work for free to stroke my ego. I don't keep plugging away for hours on end with this work thinking it's a get rich quick scheme. I don't do this because it's my job. I do it because I am proud of it, I believe in it, and nobody else is in any position to do it the right way and with the right intentions in mind. My motives are pure and my conscience is clear.

I can't pretend to know what thoughts are going through the minds of Backman and Herzog at the moment or what their actual motivations and driving factors are. However, I do know that--no matter how much better than me they think they are at lawyering--their apparent character flaws will not be washed away by technicalities and nuances of process. I will expose these flaws here and everywhere else I think it's relevant to do so, and not just because I can or I think it makes me look better in comparison. I'll do it because it needs to be done, and it's simply the right thing to do.

VISIT THE EBAY SHOP OF A FORMER XYIENCE SHAREHOLDER WHO SUPPORTS OUR CAUSE

2010-11-06T01:17:00.000-07:00

Please support the above Ebay store by clicking on the link above and making a purchase. Xyiencesucks.com is all about the attitude and the actions of company ownership over the years. We have nothing against the company's products, and the above store has plenty of great products from Xyience for very low prices. This way you can buy Xyience stuff and support one of the victims in all this who bought stock because he believed in the company.

THE REAL STORY BEHIND THE UFC'S ROYAL FAMILY

2010-11-06T00:58:00.000-07:00

Our most popular story on Bleacher Report is fast approaching 4,000 reads (we need only 95 more to get there). The piece involves the detailed history of the Fertitta Family and goes behind the scenes of how the Fertitta brothers made their billions. Click on the photo below to read the story. Leave a comment if you can to help the article rankings and get us some more traffic to help us expose the truth behind this ruthless family.

Follow The Money: The Power & Politics Behind The UFC-Owning Fertitta Family

2010-11-01T07:13:00.000-07:00

By: Rich Bergeron

Follow the money. It's a piece of advice many criminal and private investigators are taught as trainees. Once they graduate and get out into the field, they're reminded of the importance of that lesson nearly every day.

Money is the root of all evil to some people, but seemingly not enough when you look at the sad state of affairs in our materialistic world. Greed is a curse on society, and those overcome and driven by it will often take all they can any way they can get it. Corruption and conspiracy couldn't thrive without huge pools of unaccounted-for currency getting lost in the mix. It doesn't matter if it's your money or the next guy's, someone's always getting screwed because the worst scams are kept secret so the right people can profit while the little people always seem to lose the most. From Charles Ponzi to Bernie Madoff, the sophistication levels may have changed, but the core principles of the schemes never have and never will.

Consider the international financial picture. Forget Swiss banks. The Cayman Islands are small potatoes in the global banking power structure. The banking institutions where criminals exclusively keep and/or launder their money are only part of the problem. A worse disaster is wrapped up in the banks and businesses the "black-ops" and "spook" funds are kept for countries all over the world. Hiding money becomes a matter of national security and discretionary spending goes out the window in pursuit of global domination. HERE'S PROOF.

Each time a small scam artist pulls off a minor success, the chances of that criminal's operation growing larger increase exponentially. Scammers grow like weeds in the garden of capitalism. They sprout and grow incessantly, and there isn't enough Round-Up in the universe to exterminate them all. Too many of these small time scammers slip through the cracks. In time, these once tiny weeds become towering trees.

The size of the previous scam must always be much smaller than the latest one in the mind of an ego-driven mastermind of sweeping financial crime. Bent on the same pursuit of power and accumulation of excessive wealth, these type of criminals always crack in the long run, or they just simply piss too many people off. One way or another, justice finds them, or Karma miraculously kicks in. Yet, every now and then these type of masterminds conglomerate, and it takes longer for them to be revealed to the general public for what they really are. They make powerful friends, they contribute to the right political campaigns, they donate to charity, and they pay lots and lots of taxes to keep the government out of their affairs.

The Fertitta Family's money is not so hard to follow. Much of it is now re-invested in their own casino chain that they bought out of bankruptcy. Station Casinos is really only the tip of the iceberg, though. It's what's visible to the naked eye, but it's not the only major family asset.

Anyone remember that Casino that caught on fire a few years ago? The Monte Carlo was all over the news on January 25, 2008 as the facade began smoldering and black smoke poured into the Vegas atmosphere. Lots of YouTube Videos caught the action live.

At the time of the fire the Xyience bankruptcy had just been triggered by Fertitta Enterprises with their chief lien position over the company. I was talking with a Vegas-based investor on the phone that same day, not knowing what I know now about Victoria Partners and the Fertitta investment in MGM.

A Nevada Business Entity Search reveals seven active business entities operating in Nevada bearing the Fertitta name:

1. Fertitta Capital, LLC
2. Fertitta Capital II, LLC
3. Fertitta Colony Partners, LLC
4. Fertitta Enterprises, Inc.
5. Fertitta Gaming, LLC
6. Fertitta Partners, LLC
7. The Frank and Victoria Fertitta Foundation, LTD

There's also one revoked entity: Fertitta Management, LLC.

There's even a trademark out on the name Fertitta in Nevada.

There are additionally so many spin-offs and subsidiaries not under the Fertitta name that the full scale of Fertitta controlled and/or connected assets is virtually impossible to fully quantify. One company not often mentioned or thrown around in the mix is Victoria Partners Limited Partnership. William J. Bullard is the company's registered agent and the officers are listed as Fertitta Enterprises. This is the same family company the Fertittas used to bankrupt Xyience through Zyen, LLC. It's also the same company Frank Fertitta, Jr. served as Chairman of the Board for, even while he was "retired" from Station Casinos and making campaign contributions through Fertitta Enterprises.

MGM filed official SEC paperwork in February, 2010 that clearly lists Victoria Partners as a subsidiary of that massive gaming company. The listing reads: Victoria Partners, dba Monte Carlo Resort and Casino. So, at least on paper it looks like the Fertittas also have a controlling interest in the Monte Carlo. Ironically, just a few days after the ultimate decision by Fertitta Enterprises brass to burn Xyience investors in a figurative sense back in 2008, their other investment was burning for real.

Following the family money further, dating back as far as the late 90s, reveals a number of family trusts in different names, such as the ones listed HERE. The Centris Group paperwork also confirms Frank Junior was at the helm of Fertitta Enterprises for more than a decade with this passage: "Frank J. Fertitta, Jr. serves as chairman of the board of Fertitta Enterprises, Inc., an investment company."

For an investment company, Fertitta Enterprises is a very low profile operation. There's no company internet site, very little news about what the business actually does, and at least a few surreptitiously named and situated entities that fall under the company banner.

Of course the Fertitta ownership of Zuffa, LLC and Gordon Biersch Brewery are also significant. Zuffa, LLC has 13 separate registered Zuffa entities bearing the company label in Nevada alone. A broader national or international search would likely show many more companies owned and/or controlled by the Fertittas or their close associates. A recent re-broadcast of an old UFC card featured the Gordon Biersch Brewing Company all over the UFC mat. Looking up Gordon Biersch in a Nevada Business Entity search also produced interesting results, showing a default status for the company and William J. Bullard as the registered agent.

Further cross-referencing the other companies Bullard is a registered agent for gives you the following businesses:

1. Campione, LLC (Lorenzo Fertitta is a managing member)
2. Export Limited Partnership (Fertitta Enterprises listed as General Partner)
3. Gordon Biersch Brewing Company
4. KB Enterprises (Victoria K. Fertitta is President and Director)
5. Victoria Partners Limited Partnership
6. Zyen, LLC (parent company of Xyience, Inc. and subsidiary of Fertitta Enterprises)

So many companies linked to the Fertittas are mired in scandal, fraud, and/or lawsuits. Station Casinos alone is dealing with a labor union debacle in the midst of their bankruptcy and just settled a huge wage dispute with employees who filed suit against the company. Station Casinos executives basically put the whole casino chain around 6 billion dollars in debt to cause the bankruptcy, blaming the tough economy the whole way through. Now they just happen to be hiring again just a few months after they bought most of the company back in the bankruptcy courts for a song. Why didn't the Fertittas take any flack for tanking and then banking back into their own chain of casinos? Why do these billionaires keep getting bailed out of big trouble?

Even the Gordon Biersch takeover by the Fertittas became hostile when they ran into an executive with some ability to fight back against their fraudulent actions.

William J. Bullard was reported to be one of the central figures in attempts to defraud a former executive of McDonald's named Thomas B. Allin who had invested in the brewing company:

"On Dec. 13, 1997, Allin alleges, he was informed by Bullard that the company's board of directors had determined that the fair-market value of the company was about $12.3 million and that the value of Allin's stock was now $40 a share, or worth $2.2 million less than he paid for it 18 months earlier."

Bullard was also implicated in shady dealings at USA Capital, another company mired in a long bankruptcy process. One of our previous articles here outlines Bullard's alleged involvement in some of the massive fraud perpetrated at the company that at the time of the bankruptcy held over $950 million in "assets." Bullard had the opportunity to speak to an unruly crowd of USA Capital principals according to a piece in the Las Vegas Review Journal, which quoted him:

"The longer this thing goes on (in bankruptcy court), the more the attorneys are going to get paid," Bullard said.

As if all of the above isn't enough to question and investigate further how and why the Fertittas make their money, there's deeper questions that need to be asked. Where do they keep all that money, how do they spend it, and who have they made friends with that keeps them from getting caught in their past swindles?

Meadows Bank is a great place to start. The records for Fertitta Enterprises and the Fertitta family's political donations over the past decade are also worth a look. The Board of Directors at Meadows Bank includes Lorenzo Fertitta, Andre Agassi, Key Reid (Son of Harry Reid), and Las Vegas Media Magnate Brian Greenspun. Timothy Poster is also on the same board and happens to be the same guy who sold The Golden Nugget to another Fertitta (Tillman Fertitta)in 2005. The bank was too late on the scene to be damaged by the housing crisis and just in time to benefit from a new season of bailouts and big spending in Washington. The current Community Bank Legislation funnels billions to institutions including Meadows Bank via the SBA 504 Loan Pool also known as First Mortgage Loan Program or FMLP.

Here are a few interesting articles and links on the Meadows Bank players and their games:

Meadows Bank and the TARP Tax A question of Ethics for Senator Harry Reid

Book excerpts describing Harry Reid's days as Gaming Commissioner.

KEY REID GETS SWEETHEART JOB AFTER REPORT REVEALS RELATIVES OF POLITICIANS WORKING FOR LOBBYING FIRMS

THE REID CONNECTION

With political D-day today: November 2, 2010, it's also no surprise that so many UFC personalities are stumping for Harry Reid to stay in power. It's no surprise the above article also quotes Ross Miller, the guy who oversees all those business entity registrations for the Fertittas and their associates and friends:

"The UFC is one of the most powerful brands in the world for reaching 18- to 30-year-olds," Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller said. "Anytime a candidate gets their endorsement, it sends a powerful message to that demographic."

Follow the money, see who greases what wheels and how, and you begin to realize how corrupt these financial masterminds really are. Though they've left a trail of broken lives and burned investors in the wakes of all their financial scheming, the Fertittas still look slick and smart somehow. They get away with fraud after fraud, one bankruptcy after another only they benefit from, and they just keep patting the politicians who help them on the back and putting money in their campaign coffers.

No matter what your political allegiance may be or where your sympathies lie as far as the big ticket issues go, far too many elected officials abuse their power and influence to serve themselves, their associates, their friends, and/or the people who helped pay for them to get elected. Nobody's keeping an eye out for the average everyday person anymore struggling to pay rent and put food on the table for his family. Politicians are far too busy feeding billionaires more benefits they don't need for kickbacks and consideration or campaign contribution payback.

It really is time for Americans to get more educated and follow the money in their own states and locales to see where it leads. I doubt the Tea Party or any new party of any kind is really the answer. It doesn't really matter who leads us if not enough of us are intelligent and active enough in society to hold our leaders accountable for their actions. Rather than rock the vote, it's time to truly rock the system and radically alter the status quo as far as what we accept from our leaders and our society's systems as a people. Get educated on what the real facts are and don't listen to the repetitive 24-hour news cycle. Dig deeper. Explore and expose what you can in your own neck of the woods. Be conscious of the real everyday problems that surround you, not just the ones CNN or Fox News tells you about.

STATION CASINOS LABOR TROUBLES

2010-09-27T08:38:00.000-07:00

ZUFFA MEANS TO FIGHT..EVEN OVER DOMAIN NAMES

2010-09-27T08:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple interesting stories you may not have heard about Zuffa's legal bullying and attempts to enforce all trademarks, foreign and domestic.

TheUltimateFighter.com Domain Is Transferred to Zuffa LLC

Zuffa Granted Ownership of ‘TheUltimateFighter.com’ Site

CHECK OUT RICH BERGERON'S KNOQOUT.COM AUDIO INTERVIEW

2010-09-27T08:02:00.000-07:00

Donate To The Truth & Justice Legal Fund

2010-09-02T19:14:00.000-07:00

Support A Great Cause: DONATE TO HELP FIGHT FRAUD

By: Rich Bergeron

Justice is not easy to obtain when you face as many adversaries as I do and the list of perpetrators keeps on growing. I have been engaged in some capacity in litigation designed to silence my work in three free states in this free country. Only one time has an injunction stood in the way that completely interrupted my efforts, and I'm not even a party to that case.

I recently broke off all settlement negotiations with the Xyience Liquidation Trustee's Counsel Jon Backman. I refused a $105,000 settlement offer because of a series of broken promises, constant changes to the plan of execution for the settlement proposed, and because $100,000 was unsecured AND in front of the shareholders I've been fighting for since the get go. I was offered $5,000 up front and told that was the maximum amount the trustee would allow. Then I was told I'd only get $2,500 up front and $2,500 when the deal was approved. That was not the way that "up front" payment was described when I initially agreed to this settlement.

I made my own changes in the end and told Mr. Backman that the only "deal" I would accept would be $6,000 paid by September 1, 2010. I knew the only way that deal would be done is if it was paid out by the TRUSTEE. I didn't want to even get involved in an unsecured claim, but if I did and I recovered even a fraction of what I was supposed to, the $6,000 should have been a much easier and less expensive option for the trustee to accept. Instead, they balked at the counter offer, and I vowed to fight on no matter what.

Because of my recent Open Letter to Jon Backman, some new developments have surfaced, and I have been getting lots of phone calls. I have blocked all of Mr. Backman's email addresses and told him if he wants to talk he can call me direct or send me a letter by postal mail. Either way, there is no chance of a future deal. I am convinced the trustee's attorney abused his charge and acted improperly to shield the lawyers involved in this fraudulent bankruptcy so he could get their approvals on certain aspects of the case. He also seems to be wanting to make sure these individual lawyers and firms get paid in full for their legal work designed to obscure the facts and insulate the worst of the worst perpetrators from culpability.

I am doing everything I can to bring this case back to the forefront. I also need to work to expose the latest developments and the stalling that precluded my decision to drop all hopes of a settlement. All a settlement would have solved would be to remove the estate from my counterclaims and the Rule 9011 motion still before the court and not yet heard.

Instead, Jon Backman will be among those I request in my next motion to be added to my amended 9011 motion for $150 million in sanctions related to the fraud, delay, and frivolous nature of the initial suit against me that started all this. Mr. Backman has gone as far as suggesting Rule 9011 could not possibly apply to him since he never filed a document in my case.

This is just another unfortunate example of an attorney who knows less about certain aspects of the law than I do. Either that, or he's just pretending not to know the nuances of Rule 9011. One of the principal reasons for Rule 9011 to be brought to bear in a case like this is due to DELAY perpetrated by an attorney and/or party, and the spirit of the rule is to serve as an abuse of process claim in the bankruptcy courts. It does not require an actual filing to be made by the offender and also regulates conduct or lack thereof that can be considered abuse of process or needless delay.

All the evidence is pointing to Mr. Backman making moves to intentionally delay me getting fair relief while at the same time allowing approval of all the billing for the attorneys who perpetrated the whole Xyience bankruptcy fraud. These attorneys aided and abetted all the USUAL SUSPECTS! Backman's protection of these lawyers is unacceptable and truly despicable considering his refusal to do anything significant to help me after I dumped a huge pile of evidence in his lap.

I met with Backman in Illinois in February, and I was paid $750 for travel, a payment that was generated very quickly by the trustee. Why the same trustee can't approve $6,000 flat when it was a $99,000 discount given to the estate under the circumstances, I just can't explain. The evidence I gave Mr. Backman was brought to bear against a great deal of the same usual suspects I'm pursuing in regards to sanctions.

Backman's adversary cases hit the docket years after my investigation began and utilized years of my research (including documentation) volunteered to him for no financial consideration whatsoever. I am sure he's recovered way more than $6,000 based primarily on evidence I gave him and avenues of research I pointed him toward. Yet, instead of working with me, Mr. Backman seems to be taking the word of some questionable characters with lots of skeletons hidden in their closets from the old days at Xyience before the Fertittas became involved.

Backman's behavior leaves me no choice now but to lump him in with my adversaries and fight this whole case on my own dime. As such, I need to generate some kind of a budget however possible. I ask anyone who can spare something toward my tireless efforts to donate what you can. Click on the donate button below to support my truth and justice fund. Stay tuned to this site for future updates, which will be more frequent than usual over the next few weeks.

I keep track of all my donations and will pay back every cent with interest upon earning any judgment.

FREE REGGIE JOHNSON FROM HARRIS COUNTY HELL

2010-08-28T22:40:00.000-07:00

Please visit FreeTheChamp.Com by clicking on the banner below. You can donate to my legal defense fund in the post above to help me keep bringing crooks and crooked lawyers to justice with publication and pro-se litigation.

OPEN LETTER TO ATTORNEY JON BACKMAN, XYIENCE COUNSEL FOR THE LIQUIDATION TRUSTEE DAVID HERZOG

2010-08-28T14:47:00.000-07:00

Open Letter to Xyience BK Estate Counsel Jon Backman -

Check Out Rich Bergeron's Most Recent Investigative Report at WWW.FREETHECHAMP.COM

2010-08-26T23:49:00.000-07:00

Don't forget to check out JUDGEGOD.COM and SCARLETLAWYER.COM, too.

Please support Rich Bergeron's battles for justice. He is in a position to do what no man before him has likely ever done in so many jurisdictions without a single class in legal training. He is going to have to marshal all his resources, all the efforts he'd normally be able to spend on paid creative work, on volunteering his time to bringing justice to these courts filled with lawyers promoting and perpetrating injustice for the benefit of further profit and corruption. It's time to let the Constitution speak for the people rather than the conglomerate.

Bergeron has given up on even those lawyers hailing themselves as "good guys." Good guys don't charge huge rates for little work. Good guys don't put shareholders last on the list for relief below lawyers who are getting paid even though they are guilty of abusing the process for their own financial gain.

Like doctors and the "White Wall of Silence" lawyers are no different it seems. You can't tiptoe across the line and jump back for too long without getting caught in the act.

I won't do it. I won't cross that line, and I won't lie to further my point. Lawyers do it every day. That's why I'll never be a lawyer, and I know the system is designed so I don't have to be. I won't take personal reward at the expense of keeping these misdeeds in the Xyience case quiet, because at this point there is certainly no greater good served by me doing that.

I'm also sick of being subjected to continuous promises by the Trustee's Attorney to talk to or meet with the trustee only to never get a definitive answer on $100,000 I might get half of or I might get none of. It's not even worth fighting for. For all intents and purposes it's the same lame $5,000 Adam Frank and Kirk Sanford offered me in November of 2007.

And to think that's my outlook and the shareholders would only recover after me getting some or part of $100,000 in that scenario tells me I was right in the beginning when I figured out Jon Backman does not want to fight primarily for the shareholders and won't fight for them to the level he would if he was fully following through on his charge and his duties as an officer of the court.

SUNLIGHT IS THE BEST DISINFECTANT. THE TRUTH WILL SHINE THROUGH IN THE END

Another "Usual Suspect" Sees His False Allegations Flushed Out By A Wise Federal Judge

2010-08-26T23:28:00.000-07:00

In settling the Arizona complaint, GCA agreed to disassociate itself from Sanford. Sanford argued that resulted in the tarnishment of his character and harmed efforts by Sightline to gain gaming licenses.

"To prove that disparagement rises to the level of antitrust violation a plaintiff must show those disparaging representations are clearly false. Sightline makes no such allegation in its complaint," Pro wrote.

For Reference, search this blog for "bunch of zeroes."

Evidence of Trustee Impropriety in the Xyience BK Case

2010-08-26T22:20:00.000-07:00

***EMAIL ADDRESSES OF SENDER AND CC REDACTED FOR PRIVACY REASONS**

All communications bellow originate from Attorney Jon Backman, representing the Xyience estate on behalf of U.S. Trustee David Herzog.

date Tue, Aug 10, 2010 at 10:43 PM
subject Re: Updates?
mailed-by eigbox.net

hide details Aug 10

Rich ---

As I thought I mentioned last week, the Trustee will be in Vegas tomorrow to meet with me and the judge as part of the mediation process. I am going to discuss it then. As I told many months ago, the trustee already has agreed to the $5,000, but I need to walk through the $100,000 unsecured claim with him and, if he is on board,, then do a little politicking to try to ensure that no one (especially Laurel) will object when I seek court approval.

The agreement with Zinkin and the fighters last week removed Zuffa from the equation in terms of their strongest ground for objecting to a settlement with you, which is why we had to wait until August 3 to move this forward, but as I have told you in the past, Zuffa was not the only party that could seek to derail our settlement.

It is a bit frustrating on my end that you do not have a BK attorney. I understand why you do not have one, but the problem is that there are complex legal issues at play here that are impacting my ability to move forward with settlement. Unfortunately, since you do not understand the legal issues, you form the impression that I am stringing you along, but such is simply not the case. I am sorry that you are suspicious of my motives and integrity, but if you had a BK attorney advising you, then we would not have this problem. Hence my frustration.

I will be in touch as soon as possible.

Jon

=======================

date Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 7:44 PM

Rich ---

If you are now prepared to accept the $5,000/$100,000 without further contemplation or equivocation, then I will check with the Trustee to confirm the $100,000 piece. As you know he already has approved the former, but not the latter. Please confirm that this is acceptable, without further conditions, and I will check with him. My intention would be to file the motion at some point within 2 weeks after the August 3 hearing. I would not expect to have time to prepare a written agreement prior to then inasmuch as I have multiple hearings and depositions in LV during the first 2 weeks of August.

I would have preferred that you not antagonize Laurel, because it is going to make my job more difficult, and I would prefer that, if we are proceeding with this settlement, you not resume your attacks on anyone else until it is approved. But those are just preferences, not conditions. Assuming the trustee approves the $100,000 piece, I will proceed with the motion.

Anyway, please confirm that the $5,000/$100,000 are acceptable, and then I'll discuss it with the trustee.

Thanks.

Jon

===================
date Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 10:13 AM

Rich ---

I agree that we do not need to debate the merits any further. We're not really too far apart on how we see things anyway.

I can't do the $5,000 sooner than September. Judge King has looked askance at setting hearings on anything other than his pre-scheduled Vegas dates; indeed, he has yet to allow us to proceed on shortened notice on anything; he certainly is not going to do so on this settlement, which has some complexities and, on its face, does not appear to an emergency,

As for the $100,000, it is contingent on my prevailing against the Fertittas and/or the other defendants. That's the nature of a liquidating BK of this sort. You would get paid with other unsecured creditors if/when they get paid. To the extent that you have a claim against Xyience, this is the right result. You are like the other creditors who got screwed by this company (and you would be ahead of shareholders, so if they get anything, then you'll have been paid in full already).

I hope this adequately explains it. I really cannot be any more definitive than this.

Jon

=========

date Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 10:28 AM

Rich ---

It would be imprudent of me to estimate the chances of your getting paid, because that would constitute a comment on my view of the Fertitta litigation. You have been involved in this matter long enough to know that fighting them is an uphill battle, but that the case has a lot of merit.

You would be on an equal footing with all other unsecured creditors, except about $100,000 in tax claims that probably would get paid first. Certainly a good result here would be a 50% recovery within 12 to 18 months from now on general unsecured claims, but that is as specific as I can get, and involves no promise, one way or the other, on my part.

Jon
=======================

***EDITOR'S NOTE*** Jon Backman met me face to face earlier this year in Bloomington, Illinois. The trustee David Herzog reportedly paid for that trip. The estate's liquidation trustee, Backman, gained a great deal of evidence and background from my complete cooperation with him for no consideration regarding the settlement. We didn't talk about any settlement (see last message) until after I ran down most of the key information, evidence, and major results of my investigation of Xyience at an Illinois coffee shop with Backman. I gave this information of my own free will outside of any settlement negotiation. He has recently made a number of different promises, some contained above, where he says he will speak to Trustee David Herzog and obviously never makes that meeting or conversation happen and refuses to deliver any real results. He promises to file a motion in August I never saw as much as a draft of. He promised to drop the initial Xyience case against me and never did. When I sat down with Backman he told me he used to be a lawyer who worked for big businesses and did some bad things he wanted to make up for. Yet, when given the full weight of the evidence to support the facts regarding other Xyience attorneys' culpability in corruption and fraud in this case, Jon Backman put making deals and getting "approval" from these same lawyers ahead of his normal charges and responsibilities as a trustee. ********************

Date: Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 1:39 PM
Subject: Re: Meeting
To: Rich Bergeron

Rich ---

When we meet this afternoon, let's begin by focusing solely on what Xyience and its attorneys did wrong to YOU, and on your damages from that wrongdoing. I want to get my arms around what your personal damages are, separate and apart from your allegations as to what the Fertittas and Xyience have done wrong to the company, the shareholders, etc., etc. Although I know that, in the long run, your primary interest lies in the big picture, and although I too am interested in that picture, I want to keep the big picture issues separate for now from what your specific injuries and damages are, and what Xyience itself (through its officer and attorneys) did to cause these injuries. It is these latter issues that will be the subject of our settlement.

I'm heading into my last meeting. See you at or about 3:00-3:30.

Thanks.

Jon

NOT SO "TRUST" WORTHY AFTER ALL!

2010-08-23T22:12:00.000-07:00

New information and evidence will be revealed on this blog soon related to The Liquidation Trustee Attorney in the Xyience case and his activities to appease and assist his fellow lawyers who have abused the process and now expect to get paid for it. This attorney's actions are unconscionable, and I have broken off all communication with this attorney as a result and will be reporting his transgressions to United States Attorney General Eric Holder. I have taken these steps even though I stood to gain a $105,000 settlement ($5,000 paid up front and a $100,000 unsecured claim this attorney offered me to resolve the dispute.)

This attorney, who shall remain nameless for the moment, tried to represent to me when we first met that he was different from other lawyers and he used to be a big business type of lawyer who reformed and became a good guy. Instead of living up to his own legend, he chose to try to insulate attorneys who are clearly guilty of abusing their charges and should have known their activities to fraudulently bankrupt Xyience were suspect. Attorneys are not hired guns for their clients, and when they notice impropriety they are supposed to speak up and follow the rule of law rather than cover up corruption.

Emergency 7th Circuit Appeals Brief (ignored) Regarding Iacovelli's Death | Dr. Barry Eppley, MD, DMD vs. Lucille Iacovelli | Rich Bergeron - JDSupra

2010-08-14T14:28:00.000-07:00

Emergency 7th Circuit Appeals Brief (ignored) Regarding Iacovelli's Death Dr. Barry Eppley, MD, DMD vs. Lucille Iacovelli Rich Bergeron - JDSupra

FERTITTAS ROAD TO BUYING THEMSELVES OUT OF BANKRUPTCY PAVED WITH BAD INTENTIONS

2010-08-01T20:53:00.000-07:00

By: Rich Bergeron

(at left, boys will be boys..Dana White stands in the middle of the two Fertitta Brothers in their younger days. The picture on the right is from a groundbreaking ceremony)

Las Vegas truly seems like the picture of luck and promise for visitors who flock to this mecca of over the top celebration hoping to hit it big or at least come home happy. As our nation is crippled piece by piece by massive fraud and failure of proper government oversight, a place like Vegas can easily get lost in the mix. It's not so appealing anymore now that most of us can see the whole "game" is rigged simply by observing our surroundings. It's all too easy to look around and get disgusted at the excess in a place like Vegas.

The housing crisis hit Vegas hard, especially when the economy soured and people stopped coming out there and taking such lavish vacations. Even the President of the United States, Barack Obama, was telling people at one point not to blow it all in Vegas.

The Fertitta family gambled hard and fast with Station Casinos on what is called "the locals market" and lost more than a bundle. Perhaps it is a bit of Karma for all the honest folks who lost their shirts in Fertitta casinos over the years. Possibly it could be chalked up to bad luck or a lack of foresight.

Or... maybe the more feasible and probable explanation is the Fertittas and their front men and lawyers did it all on purpose. They orchestrated a bankruptcy to purposely favor their position and buy the company back debt free and scare off other bidders by their sheer ability to make impossible deals possible.

It's not so far fetched, is it? Vegas is--after all--a city where the mayor is working to build a Mob museum out of an old courthouse. When a guy like Oscar Goodman, a former Mafia lawyer himself, is running "the show," it's hard to believe everything's not rigged toward the wiseguy blood in town. One of the questions that seems pointless to ask these days is, "Where's all the money really going?"

It's just becoming increasingly harder to track and regulate where and why money gets thrown around by these professional corporate crooks who have insulated themselves with vast resources and smart attorneys who know how to get around the bankruptcy courts and keep their bosses out of getting splashed with any real hot water.

Guys like William J. Bullard become untouchable after figuring out how to get through all the loopholes and sneak past regulators looking the other way. As long as the tax money and campaign contributions are flowing out, the investigators aren't looking into the Fertitta Enterprises affairs.

One of the most troubling aspects of my investigation into Fertitta Enterprises is how little there is regarding public information about what this company actually does to make all that wheel-greasing money. A look back into some INTERESTING CASE FILES of another bankruptcy process Fertitta Enterprises is involved in reveals that Fertitta Front Man William J. Bullard was implicated in some interesting claims in a massive bankruptcy of a group of companies under the USA Capital label. Bullard is connected at the hip to the Fertitta family, having common connections to Gordon Biersch, Fertitta Enterprises, Meadows Bank (Where he is ironically the "Whistleblower Contact"), and two older businesses listed on corporationwiki.com:

Inspectech Corporation of California

Tex-Wesley Clear Creek, L.L.C.

Crooks are by nature egotistical and arrogant people. The worst crooks can be the most likely to really add insult to injury with their crimes. They do this not only by way of the sheer magnitude of the crime itself, but also by the very methods and names they use to keep the whole matter secret. Consider the "USA" connection between two groups Fertitta Enterprises and Bill Bullard worked their financial fraud through over the years. Global Cash Access (GCA) Executives were heavily involved in the Xyience bankruptcy scandal. Fertitta Enterprises officials, under the guise of a subsidiary named Zyen, LLC, utilized Global Cash Access money and some of that scandal-ridden company's principal players to perpetrate the whole fraudulent Xyience bankruptcy process from top to bottom.

One of the earliest legal problems the co-founders of GCA faced were related to companies like USA Processing and EXCLUSIVE USA MARKETING CORPORATION.

GCA Founders Karim Maskatiya & Robert Cuccinotta, Former CEO Kirk Sanford, Executive Kathryn Lever, and Maskatiya's Nephew Omer Sattar are the known Global Cash Access plants put in place at Xyience to purposely bankrupt the company and funnel all the money to Fertitta connected companies like Zuffa, LLC and Zuffa Marketing. Kirk Sanford told me himself in a November, 2007 meeting in Times Square (see photo below) that Maskatiya had a considerable amount of money invested in the Fertitta lien position over Xyience.

The major connection Global Cash Access has with Fertitta Enterprises is by way of their contract to provide kiosk and transaction services to station Casinos. This is what likely put the Fertittas in touch with GCA's executives and officials in the first place.

Looking at the emerging pattern of fraud, analyzing the complicated nature of the involved transactions, and taking into account the overall landscape in Vegas that allowed this corruption to go on unchecked, it is easy to see why the Fertittas and their front men and women continue to escape culpability and accountability for orchestrating these massive fraudulent schemes. Nobody has the budget to face them in court and win, and not even the government's best investigative agencies seem willing to try to go the criminal route. The reason doesn't appear to be lack of cause as much as it seems to be about cold hard cash. The city of Las Vegas and the State of Nevada are getting their take six ways to Sunday, and so is the U.S. Government on casino, property, and income taxes paid out by the Fertitta family and their business interests.

But, the question must be asked: WHAT IS THE PRICE OF ALLOWING THIS FRAUD TO KEEP GROWING BIGGER? Do we have to let the Fertittas turn into the next Bernie Madoff before we throw the full weight of criminal charges at them? Their "bull"dog William J. Bullard should be using his financial talents to solve complicated financial crimes. Instead, he and the Fertittas have masterminded perpetrating them under the radar and behind the scenes without ever being called out by the major local press. They do direct business with the Vegas Media Magnate Greenspuns through Green Valley Ranch and Meadows Bank. They have literally covered every base but one.

A blogger with a clear conscience and a bit of talent in getting the facts out of a dedicated investigation came along and did what nobody else had the stones to accomplish and fight for.

I learned that justice is not simply a word or a concept. It is something you must believe in and strive for every day in a society that is trying to keep you from obtaining it if it means pissing off the haves in favor of the have nots. The who cares line gets tossed out there all the time like the first pitch at any big baseball game: ugly and off target.

Who cares? For one, you should if you are a true fan of mixed martial arts. Do you really want the kind of people who systematically take over and cripple companies after promising to invest in and take care of them to be ultimately in control of the best MMA league in existence? This UFC deal is "their thing" and they have some bondholders they have to pay back over the long run, but it's going to make them rich and the fighters poor after all is said and done. They put too many fighters out of business for too long when PRIDE collapsed, going down in history as just another Fertitta company destroyed with a principal purpose of picking up the best pieces and pissing away the rest.

Do you really want the kind of guys who would pay themselves with money pumped into Xyience to the tune of millions of dollars and neglect to square up with their own fighters under contract with the brand? The best warriors in the business should be making millions, and often they make pennies compared to the hours they have to put in to be in prime condition to fight. They rely on their best sponsorships at times.

The Fertittas had outstanding contract payments owed to UFC fighters sponsored by Xyience of less than a million dollars when they bankrupted the company as the chief lienholder. Why didn't they pay their own fighters who literally shed blood for the brand? All the Fertittas ever did for the brand before they destroyed it and took it over for themselves was front it with some ad space on the octagon, make their fighters accessible to sponsorships, and associate it with the rise of The Ultimate Fighter show on Spike TV. The fighters did the real work in promoting the brand. Yet only one old-regime Xyience fighter is back with the newly-branded Fertitta outfit. Matt Serra. Why? (Search this blog for Matt Serra)

The time has come for some light to be shed on this corruption and some action to be taken by the general public. If you agree with me and have your own examples of "usual suspect" fraud that's being overlooked, please Report Waste, Fraud, Abuse, or Misconduct Here.

The Fertittas are about the buy their own casinos out of bankruptcy on a budget of nearly a billion dollars built on what appears to be scheme after corrupt scheme and ruthless business practices that take advantage of the bankruptcy process and subject far too many innocent Americans and taxpayers to footing the ultimate trickle down bill. It starts with the huge investment banks. These institutions eventually pass the expenses on to the little people through overdraft and transaction fees to catch up on all the revenue they've lost hiding their transgressions and trying to avoid being prosecuted for financial crimes.

Why should we be surprised that the economic outlook is gloomy right now in America when we let financial fraudsters like this stay in control and out of jail for so long? As the Fertitta Family pumps hundreds of millions of dollars into getting a relatively debt free casino package out of a nearly 6 billion dollar and ballooning debt debacle with Station, another old associate is going down for 8-12 years in the penitentiary. Bill Bullard was a gung-ho pit boss type of mover and shaker for the company Joseph D. Milanowski drove into the ground. His scheme with one loan in the ongoing bankruptcy case of USA Capital prompted the lawyers explaining it to draw up a diagram:

So right now one lone wolf at the tip of this iceberg gets captured and caged for a while, but the rest of the wolves get to go right on running with the pack and wreaking havoc. Station Casinos is set for auction on this fast-money-first-Friday in August, and the Fertittas are poised to put in a bid as high as $772 million according to the Wall Street Journal.

Is it any coincidence that just as the Station Casinos auction closes leaving the Fertittas virtually free and clear of all the fraud that got them there, Joe Milanowski will be settling into his cell
after having a wall of bars closed on him?

August 6, 2010 could possibly be the day the Fertitta brothers make the deal of the century for themselves. This auction is paving the way for them to become even richer in the long run if they play their cards right and nobody outbids them. August 6th could potentially be the best day of the Frank Fertitta III and Lorenzo Fertitta's young business life, but it is sure to be the worst day of Milanowski's entire life, and he had to pay nearly $90 million in restitution to boot.

Instead of raising champagne glasses to toast yet another successful scheme when they steal their company back from the bottom of the cliff of debt they pushed it off, the Fertittas should be in their own bunk bed unit across from Milanowski. Bullard should be in the bunk above Milanowski. Maybe like Tyco's Dennis Kozlowski does now, they can do something constructive like teach their fellow inmates how to get their GEDs.

Here are some interesting links on Milanowski worth looking at and asking yourself why the Fertittas and William J. Bullard aren't implicated anywhere in this mess even though the civil charges implicate them as such a major player:

MILANOWSKI PLEADS GUILTY

U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Litigation Release No. 20536 / April 23, 2008

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION VS. JOSEPH MILANOWSKI COMPLAINT

ACCUSATIONS OF FRAUD, SECURITIES VIOLATIONS: SEC sues ex-USA Capital President

AND WHO GOT RICH WITHOUT SHARING ANY ACCOUNTABILITY WHATSOEVER???

THAT'S RIGHT F#*KIN' LAWYERS!!!

"The longer this thing goes on (in bankruptcy court), the more the attorneys are going to get paid," Bullard said.

USA Capital investors fret over rising legal fees

"Rabble Rousin'" Rich Bergeron Showcased On Knoqout.Com Radio

2010-07-25T20:44:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-25T20:36:00.000-07:00

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:

Press Conference: U.S. Government Issues Massive Labor Complaint Against Station Casinos

2010-07-24T02:03:00.000-07:00

VIDEO COURTESY OF WORKERSTATION.ORG

INTERESTING FERTITA FAMILY AND STATION CASINO LINKS

2010-07-24T01:02:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-24T00:19:00.001-07:00

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:

TWO GREAT SITES FOR INTERNET ACTIVISM

2010-07-15T01:54:00.000-07:00

STATION CASINOS, FERTITTA ENTERPRISES, KIRK SANFORD AND A BUNCH OF ZEROES

2010-07-12T16:04:00.000-07:00

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.

AMENDED XYIENCE TRUSTEE COMPLAINT

2010-07-11T20:19:00.000-07:00

Xyience, UFC and Zuffa Connection Exposed With Trustee Complaint in Nevada BK Court

ACCESS DENIED: Fertitta Friendly Global Cash Access May Lose Arizona License

2010-07-11T18:51:00.000-07:00

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.

MATT SERRA DOES A XYIENCE 180

2010-07-11T18:47:00.000-07:00

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!

Putting the Xyience Story To Bed & Waiting For The Ultimate Judgment Day

2010-07-11T18:46:00.000-07:00

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.

3,000 READS! "The Real Story Behind the UFC's Royal Family" Reaches Bleacher Report Milestone

2010-07-11T18:43:00.000-07:00

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.

Xyience, Inc. Liquidation Trustee Files Complaint Against Fertitta Enterprises And Former Company Executives

2010-07-11T18:40:00.000-07:00

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.

From Left to right: Omer Sattar, Kirk Sanford, Adam Frank, Frank Fertitta III, Lorenzo Fertitta (William Bullard not pictured)

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?

2010-07-11T18:38:00.000-07:00

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.

Station Casinos Collapse Backing UFC-owning Fertitta Brothers into a Corner

2010-07-11T18:36:00.000-07:00

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.

STATION CASINOS OFFICIALLY FILES BANKRUPTCY

2010-07-11T18:19:00.000-07:00

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

THE LATEST XYIENCE LAWSUIT & OTHER XYIENCE DEVELOPMENTS

2010-07-11T18:14:00.000-07:00

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.

Solving The Crime: An Intro to The Story Behind The Fertitta/Zuffa Assassination of PRIDE

2010-07-11T17:58:00.000-07:00

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.

If you look deep enough into the background of the 90% owners of Zuffa, LLC you will find a long and sordid history of Italian Mafia connections dating back to Galveston Texas, which was America's Vegas before the Vegas we know today existed. Just page back through my own compiled history of the Fertitta and Maceo families here on this site, and it's clear the connection is undeniable and very telling.

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.

RABBLE ROUSIN' RICH BERGERON'S LATEST LEGAL FIGHT: INDIANA PLASTIC SURGEON SUES FORMER PATIENT TO SILENCE ON-LINE COMPLAINTS

2010-07-11T17:49:00.000-07:00

By: Rich Bergeron

NOTE: MANY OF THE LINKS AND WEB-SITES MIGHT BE BROKEN SINCE Dr. EPPLEY'S LEGAL TEAM WAS SUCCESSFUL AT TEMPORARILY SHUTTING THEM DOWN, BUT THEY MAY BE RESTORED IF THE LATEST APPEAL IS A SUCCESS. FOR THE MOMENT,VISIT JUDGE SARAH EVANS BARKER SUCKS to learn more about the case.

Dr. Barry Eppley, MD, DMD is an Indianapolis plastic surgeon who obviously has no idea what kind of floodgates he opened up when he sued Lucille Iacovelli on March 30, 2009 and had his lawyers name me to the initial Temporary Restraining Order.

Had Eppley done his research before sicking Harvard's Own Hasty-Pudding Hatchet Man Todd Richardson of Lewis & Kappes on poor Lucille, he would have discovered that there's a reason Lucille was featured in the HBO Documentary Plastic Disasters.

This case was so out of the ordinary that the Indianapolis Business Journal started tracking it nearly as soon as it hit the docket. IBJ Reporter J.K. Wall wrote an excellent article about the case and also wrote me an email about Judge Sarah Evans Barker's potential bias in the matter considering she is on the board of directors at the parent company of the hospitals Eppley practices in.

JUDGE SARAH EVANS BARKER (left) has refused to provide equal footing to all parties involved in this situation, blatantly ignored Lucille's duly presented evidence, and taken Eppley's own word as expert testimony. Actually, considering Eppley has only spoken through his own attorney in this case, Judge Barker's given him an extra benefit of the doubt and taken Eppley's word straight from the mouths of Lewis & Kappes attorneys.

This frivolous case brought by Eppley and exacerbated by Judge Barker's blatant bias has taken time away from a lot of more important activities in my life, namely the legal situation surrounding the almost 380 shareholders in Xyience who were screwed over by that company's fraudulent bankruptcy.

Dr. Barry Eppley, in my humble opinion, is the reason why legal costs are so high when it comes to health care. I have seen Doctors like Eppley routinely try to hide their medical malpractice record to make it easier to attract unsuspecting patients. It is getting harder and harder to find accurate records or histories on even the best of physicians with the most impeccable credentials. Public Citizen once made a valiant effort to track bad, or "questionable" doctors, but nobody took the torch and continued their work.

Dr. Eppley can engage all the lawyers in all the law firms in every free state in this country if he wants. They will not be able to overcome the entire history of Supreme Court precedents preventing him from winning this case and continuing his unconstitutional injunction past the appeals level. Judge Barker can have all the political juice a judge can possibly have, but if she's knee deep in culpability, I'll expose her for it. It just exponentially gets worse from here, and fines or arrests of each and every one of us helping Lucille will do nothing but fuel our passion to revolt even more intensely against this indefensible and frivolous sham of a case.

Dr. Eppley needs to realize that the court of public opinion will be his ultimate judge, and he should have figured that out before filing this fabricated lawsuit. He is ultimately only going to prove to everyone following the case that he is a true scumbag with no scruples, as I believe he's already proven by having Lucille immediately committed to a psych ward to kick this case off. He acts as if he knows he only has one choice: fabricate a clean reputation no matter how many lies he has to tell to do it. Rather than publicly respond and officially dismiss Lucille's complaints, Eppley's using lawyers to do his dirty work. The fact that he would take further advantage of such a frail, defenseless, innocent victim of what I believe is one of the worst mistakes of his surgical career is beyond despicable. It is almost like a guy raping a woman, getting away with it, and then suing her to prevent her from getting an abortion and to get custody of the child.

Please tell Dr. Eppley how you feel about this case and watch the video below. This case is more important than you think. If this thing gets rigged, the domino effect will continue on. We all have a stake in this. If you keep a blog or comment about issues on other blogs, someday this case could reach out and touch you if you piss someone off who can afford an attorney.

We need to draw the line in the sand and show the Indiana Federal Courts and Judge Sarah Evans Barker that they forgot one thing while they went about denying us our rights to free speech. There's a little thing called the First Amendment in play here, and it's not some obscure rule of procedure or statute you can misinterpret or read your own way. It's pretty cut and dried.

Please contact Eppley and his lawyers (their email addresses are in the video) and tell them to stop going after an innocent victim. Contact Judge Barker's deputy and tell her that Barker has no business staying on this case and needs to step down immediately. Start your own blog entry about this subject, populate our links, and keep the word of mouth spreading so these people think twice about pushing this case any further. This case is about way more than just one woman from Cape Cod. It could impact everyone in this country in due time if we don't stop the injustice now.

Global Economic Crisis Devestating Worldwide Gaming Interests

2010-07-11T17:39:00.000-07:00

by: Rich Bergeron

Over the past few months the economic crisis gripping our nation hit with full fury and is promising to only get worse. From corporate giants to Casino barons, everyone is feeling the pinch. The Fight Industry and Sports in general will no doubt be a hard hit sector of the economy as we lapse into 2009, even if Barack Obama turns out to be a miracle worker.

Lately, some of the main culprits and corporate crooks behind the economic collapse have reared their ugly heads. As these individuals and business enterprises emerge as the forces behind the culture of corruption, they always seem to have the same strategy. They grease the wheels, they make powerful friends, and they step on the toes of everyone they can to make themselves a buck. The recent revelation that Bernie Madoff bilked tens of billions from investors and financial institutions around the world should be no surprise in this vulture capitalist economy. Guys like Madoff should have been busted years ago but managed to breeze through previous investigations on cruise control.

And should we really be so shocked that a governor would resort to selling a senate seat? We live in a nation built by pork barrel projects and fat cat capitalists, and influence peddling is the number one sport of those who want to shape their position in the scheme of things.

The worst aspects of the Bush Administration nation have ultimately resulted in the bailouts of gargantuan investment firms, banks, and foreclosure-strapped mortgage brokers. Business as usual in Washington quickly tried to show it was fixing the problem but only scratched the surface of the massive fraud that made it all happen.

In the throes of this economic landslide, it is important to look at some of the characters the major news networks don't normally focus on but perhaps should. The collapse of global gambling and casino interests ranks among the most intriguing untold stories of the financial crisis we face right now. Hundreds of billions change hands in casino deals, and it's not just Mobsters behind the glitz and glamor anymore. Gaming interests and income can be so substantial that they have the power and juice to fuel massive money laundering efforts, counterfeiting, and even terrorism.

Gambling in Macau has a rich history, but it only recently became wide open to outside investors, and those wanting to branch out beyond Vegas came with their billions to develop the next big boom town:

The world's financial picture has changed drastically from the time when the above reports were produced: May of 2007. Macau's casinos are now dealing with a Chinese government crackdown on visitation to the island.The stress being felt by international markets, the high debt to capital ratios of many of the world's casinos conglomerates, and the smash and grab corruption schemes all helped ravage Macau in addition to the Chinese Government's moves. The future does not look bright for the Eastern gaming enclave according to this Washington Post piece.

Still, Macau is an imposing and formidable force in the worldwide casino picture. There are more than just a handful of casinos there, and not just one or two are owned by American casino corporations. Vegas East will no doubt continue to see declining numbers as the worldwide gaming sector suffers, and the original article City of Sin may be in for an even more profound fall from grace.

Las Vegas, Nevada is one of the hardest hit cities in the nation due to the ongoing housing crisis. While banks and big businesses get the bailout money first, there's still a long delay getting relief to cash-strapped homeowners who can no longer afford their overblown mortgages. Las Vegas, which had experienced an overwhelming influx of new citizens in the last two decades, is now reeling as real estate prices plummet. So many property-owners there are either upside-down and stagnated by debt or on their way out, abandoning the dusty desert for other locales where the crisis isn't so pronounced.

Yet, for the casino owners there is no easy way to pack up shop and leave town. Even the biggest of the bunch are facing a dismal 2009 outlook. There are different strategies being employed to weather the storm. Some casinos will have to sell off assets. This article outlines the details behind the recent sale of the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino.

Other casinos just might face an even worse fate. As we have been reporting here at Fight News Unlimited in recent weeks, Station Casinos may be the first big Vegas enterprise to declare bankruptcy in these troubled times. We have also reported that gaming interests in Australia were feeling the pinch already. Just today I stumbled across this article detailing Station Casinos' ties to Australian Billionaire James Packer:

Crown's $414m US investment 'worthless'

Packer's lost nearly a billion dollars in net worth in these lean times for gambling. Like the Fertitta Family in Vegas who partially owns Station Casinos and represents the managing partner of the Casino chain, Packer has friends in the media. The Fertittas are partners on some of their developments with the Greenspun family, which operates much of the local Vegas media scene from newspapers to television stations. Packer cut out the middle man in Australia by having a direct ownership position over much of the country's media industry. Packer's approach seems aimed at acquiring as much control as he can over his country's media landscape.

James Packer's had an incredibly rough year. His international gaming enterprise Crown Limited has been his albatross as the world's financial picture transitions from bad to worse. Packer's only big break of late was when his 25% interest in PBL Media was saved by a last minute rescue package, which was just announced overnight. Packer's luck may not be as good as Station Casinos' in their recently failed attempts to recapitalize. Hover, it seems that Packer's personal fortune is not just tied to Vegas and Australia. Packer also coincidentally has interests in Macau that are also suffering:

Melco Crown Offers Macau Casino Staff Unpaid Leave (Update1)

One of Packer's biggest competitors in Macau is Dorchester, Massachusetts Native Sheldon Adelson, chief executive of Las Vegas Sands. It is certainly a small world, as Dorchester is where I also spent my younger years growing up in Massachusetts. At any rate, Adelson's ventures in Macau are still in motion and bolstered by the grand pomp and circumstance that surrounded the opening of the $2.4 billion Venetian Macau.

Though this recent report has shares in Las Vegas Sands losing 94 percent of their value this year, the company has a solid buy rating according to a Goldman Sachs analyst.

The rating was attributed to recent cost cutting measures including the elimination of hundreds of Vegas jobs.

Even Adelson's home state of Massachusetts is reconsidering the expansion of state gambling interests as a remedy for its fiscal problems. The Boston Globe recently detailed how New England is by no means immune from the global casino collapse.

Perhaps in the long run if the casinos continue to suffer and the housing crisis continues to worsen along with the global economic picture, a perfect world scenario could emerge. The reeling casino hotels could be mandated to provide their rooms as affordable housing to all those put out by the mortgage mess. That would be fitting of course, but don't bet on it.

What's more likely is that there will be some real financial casualties, jobs will be lost, and people will lose their personal fortunes. The corrupt will survive somehow and go right on corrupting. But, unless enough Americans start to realize that the late local news isn't covering all the bases and the 24-hour news networks are dropping the ball on all the stories behind the crisis, there is no end in sight to this "recession" that is looking more and more like it could become a depression each day.

As 2008 comes to a close in Las Vegas, it may just be up to Robbie Knievel to resurrect the hope and the spirit of the community when he does a death-defying jump of the brand new MGM Mirage Volcano as part of a New Year's Eve special planned for The City of Sin. If not, maybe the planned $50 million Mob Museum will save the day. Either way, it's going to be a while before Las Vegas really gets back on its feet again.

More Related Links:

Casino stocks plunge to new lows in late October

Primm hotel rates for locals: free

Casinos again loosen up on rooms, meals

Another institutional investor ups LV Sands investment

Treasure Island deal seen as early holiday present for industry

Nevadans tell congressional panel bailout has not filtered down

Looking FOR LEVERAGE: Fertittas' Station Casinos Empire Running Out of Time

2010-07-11T17:32:00.000-07:00

By: Rich Bergeron

The Fertitta Family is in crisis mode to save Station Casinos from the throes of bankruptcy, and without a solution materializing by Thursday there could be some major trouble brewing for the multi-billion dollar gaming empire.

While the Fertittas are not the only ones who find themselves stuck in the stagnant economy and obliterated by Las Vegas' worst-in-the-nation housing crisis, they are one of the most heavily leveraged casino operators and land-owners in an industry that depends on both locals and tourists alike being able to pay to play.

The Las Vegas Sun got the jump on the situation yesterday by printing a piece about commonly situated Harrah's and Station's different approaches to getting out from under their massive private debt. Sun Reporter Liz Benston described the troubling outlook in no uncertain terms:

"Analysts say Station will likely default on the company’s bank loans by year’s end because it has too much debt relative to cash flow. That could allow the bank to demand repayment, triggering a filing for bankruptcy protection."

The company's new deadline for a debt exchange Hail Mary has been set. They have until 5PM on December 11 to consider all the options on the table. Assets could potentially be sold, and reports have surfaced indicating the Fertitta Family is willing to put their own money to the cause, but they certainly won't be getting any sweetheart deals out of this scenario.

One thing's for sure, Uncle Sam will not be bailing out any casinos.

The Fertittas live in the lap of luxury, and it's not out of the realm of possibility to maintain that lifestyle even despite a potentially ugly bankruptcy of Station Casinos. Right now Frank Fertitta, Jr ranks at #20 on the list of the top 100 property tax payers in the Spring Valley CDP district of Vegas.

Frank's next-door neighbor is none other than former Aladdin Casino owner Jack Sommer, so he has someone one door down who could give him all the casino-related bankruptcy advice he needs should Station Casinos decide to go that route.

Frank Junior's sons live in mansions, too. Lorenzo's got a multi-million dollar house on Greensboro Lane, and brother Frank Fertitta III has the kind of obnoxiously huge spread that is best classified as a complex. Here's some good shots of the manse being constructed and the finished product

Vegas has been very, very good to the Fertitta family so far, but this economic crunch time comes at the worst possible moment. They are stuck at the apex of their aggressive development and massive expansion of the Station Casinos suburban hot-spot model. The company's strategy of developing huge resort-style casino communities in the suburban areas of Vegas backfired amidst the massive wave of foreclosures in those very same areas.

A town that has seen its fair share of casino implosions is undergoing a major makeover of the strip, evidenced by the recent completion of what is sure to become the next big Vegas spectacle: A GIANT VOLCANO AT THE MIRAGE THAT COST $25 MILLION JUST TO CONSTRUCT. Cranes and crowds of construction workers populate the strip now, fast at work creating a new lavish landscape for tourists to be amazed by.

And for those who didn't want to be spectacles themselves there would always be the off-strip offerings of Station Casinos like the new Red Rock facility and the still unique and secluded Green Valley Ranch--each promising pampering, privacy, and perfect ambiance. Yet, no longer are so many bigwig executives throughout the busted economy able to blow so much money without batting an eye. The out of the way premium stops are being skipped over for the conglomerated and concentrated on-strip locations. Facilities like Red Rock may be obsolete before they even get off and running, but there's no doubt a whole new level of luxury available there:

Green Valley Ranch looks like the kind of fantasy land that makes you forget you're there for the casino in the first place:

By the time the Fertittas cornered the suburban market, the market had suddenly disappeared. Yet, Station Casinos has faced difficulty before, and they'll hang on tight here and do what it takes to weather the rough patch. Industry suggestions that the company will be bankrupt by the end of the year may be premature, but not impossible at this point. If the Fertittas have mastered one thing in the business it is how to make their customers feel welcome. They represent the image of cut and polished business masterminds, yet they maxed out the company's available debt limit with massive senior secured credit facilities based on a gamble that didn't account for any downturns or deep recessions. You almost have to ask at this point if this is another Kansas City Shuffle going on behind closed doors. The way you get maximum leverage is to always be building.

As the folks who jacked up Boston's "Big-Dig" highway project know all too well, you can come up with some legendary billing proportions for construction on that kind of scale. I think the Dig's not even done yet. What is finished barely even solved the problem and went waaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyy over budget. Not to mention it literally had fatal flaws.

It's easy to lose track of small expenditures when you're dealing in hundreds of millions and every now and then even billions of dollars in contracts, land grabs, and expansion plans. If you cut corners you can free up more dough to play around with.

In organized crime terminology when it comes to casino operations, the off the top tariff called "the skim" has evolved drastically. There is a whole new atmosphere in town. There are corporate land barons and casino magnates running things now rather than Mafia capos. Yet, are we to imagine by any stretch that all the strawmen are truly gone from Vegas? Something tells me the Mob always finds a way to infiltrate from afar and will always have some kind of iron grip on Vegas. Being pushed further underground has only made the organization more tight knit and unwilling to give up any new secrets. They have to come up with more sophisticated schemes and more subtle ways to exert influence. But if they're still entrenched in town, they're hurting, too.

The Fertitta family aren't the only ones in Vegas feeling the pinch.

They're not even the only ones in the world suffering. Australia's gaming interests are reeling, too.

Tourists pinching pennies seem to be going for a look but don't touch approach, and it can't be good for the future of gaming. Boxing and Mixed Martial arts events promoted in Vegas may also suffer in the long run. Only time will tell.

The Fertittas financial issues are by no means limited to Vegas, either. California has been troublesome, too.

The Fertitta family's foray into being publicly traded doesn't seem to have turned out as the Fertittas had planned, and the private buyback last year seems to have over-burdened the brand with hard to shed debt instruments. The Fertittas are reciting a new rendition of the old Robert Frost poem this winter in Vegas:

These times are ugly, dark and deep,
But we have promises to keep,
And billions to pay before we sleep,
And billions to pay before we sleep.

Like the lawyers who promote needless delay in the bankruptcy case, the Fertittas seem to be putting off the inevitable, scrambling to figure out a deal. Lately they've been pushing back deadlines as the local Vegas tourism numbers begin to look weaker and weaker:

Station Casinos extends bond offer deadline again

LAS VEGAS TOURISM: Visitor tally continues to slide

UNLV economist says unemployment eventually may hit 10 percent locally

It should be no surprise that nobody in Vegas saw this coming or bothered to try and stop the corruption at the heart of this whole series of reports, spanning more than two years of my life now. After all, we're talking about a town spending $50 Million on a Mafia Museum project bolstered by its main backer: ex-mob-lawyer-turned-Mayor Oscar Goodman. Regardless of who is looked upon as the lesser of two evils, be it the Corporate Conglomerate or the Criminal Enterprise both now sharing Space in the new age Vegas, the common people always lose in the long run when greed takes over.

OTHER LINKS OF INTEREST:

STATION CASINOS FIGHTING OFF BANKRUPTCY

History of Las Vegas

JACK SOMMER'S GOOD FORTUNE

Aladdin Property History