Fertittas Walk Away From Xyience & Xenergy With Big Red Buyout

By: Rich Bergeron

Inside sources at Xyience, Incorporated broke the news to me last week that the company would soon be sold off to Big Red, based in Austin, Texas. Employees will apparently not be receiving severance packages, and early indications are that the beverage company buying out the brand will not seek to enter into the supplement business. This means only the Xenergy line of energy drinks will remain under the Xyience label. I held off on publishing the news immediately due to a promise of more intelligence if I let it go a few days. Then, the Las Vegas Review Journal forced my hand today with THIS REPORT.

The sudden washing of their hands of the former supplement giant known for sponsoring Chuck Liddell in happier days is par for the Fertitta course. It comes as no surprise that Lorenzo and Frank would bail on the company in this fashion. It certainly is ironic, though. It was actually disgraced Xyience Founder Russell Pike who originally came up with the idea to hype up the Xenergy line in the hopes of selling it to a major bottling outfit. Pike wanted Pepsi or Coke to come in with a multi-million dollar offer to take over Xenergy and transform it into a wholly unique company. The Fertittas obviously fell short of that lofty goal (maybe it had something to do with something Dana White once said), possibly banking on their Galveston, Texas roots and other family connections in Texas to ink the new deal that allows them to walk away from this boondoggle.

Other whispers from the final days of the Fertitta-run Xyience indicate that marketing studies showed Xenergy is being sold to more mainstream non-UFC-fans than ever. This reality also means the end of UFC sponsorship deals with Xyience and Xenergy.

One thing the company managed to do well over the last few years is in the realm of building distribution agreements for their sugar-free energy drink. Since the heady "Monica" days at Xyience, Xenergy's always been easier for the company to market than the supplement lines. Insiders who are aware of the Fertitta walkout point to profitability, or lack thereof, as an issue for the whole conglomerate. Lorenzo Fertitta in particular, one of the principles at Fertitta Enterprises (which holds the official, albeit obscured, ownership position over Xyience), is reportedly growing tired of losing $5 million a year.

This is the end of another monumental scam for the Fertittas, who just barely escaped serious liability in a lawsuit brought against them by the U.S. Trustee in bankruptcy court. The scheme that drove Xyience just far enough into the ground for the billionaire casino barons to take the whole thing over is now officially in the rear view mirror of their Rolls Royce. The roadmap's been painfully obvious to people like me from the very beginning, but somehow the local boys made good managed to avoid culpability and accountability for the mess they ultimately left behind by their selfish actions throughout the whole process. Let's not forget the hundreds of innocent shareholders who saw their investments turn to dust thanks to the way the Fertittas swept in and turned the whole operation into another sad example of vulture capitalism.

Though I took some small consolation from Fertitta Attorney Greg Garman telling a judge at my final hearing that my reporting has caused his clients multiple headaches with the gaming authorities in Nevada, it is even more comforting to know the Fertittas never could get Xyience buzzing again under their leadership. Maybe they will finally come to realize they would have been better off doing everything above board. I know, fat chance on the "Come to Jesus" moment ever happening for these scum-of-the-Earth con artists.

The bottom line is there won't be any former Xyience investors waiting for the final closing of this deal to cash in on what they put their life savings behind so many years ago. The Fertittas will be another couple of fat cats getting fatter when they deposit the final checks that bail them out from this disaster they constructed and created out of sheer, callous greed. Perhaps it will all go to pay for another yacht, another private jet, or another summer getaway they can jet off to when everyday life gets too real. Whatever the final sale price is, it is a crying shame that none of it will go to the honest folks who actually put the brand on the map with their hard-earned money from decades of the kind of hard work the Fertittas themselves will never be able to relate to. Whoever said liars and cheaters never win probably never met Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta III.

We'll have more details as they come to light on this blockbuster transaction.  

Smoking Gun Evidence that Bergeron Case Was Unfounded in Law or Fact

The above email chain dates back to the beginning of the $25 million Xyience lawsuit filed against me in Las Vegas District Court back in 2007 by Attorney Jamie Cogburn. These exchanges came from an email recently sent to me by the brother of Xyience Founder Russell Pike, who is currently incarcerated due to a conviction for tax evasion. I will be publishing a large cache of other insider emails in the near future.

At the time these emails originated, Pike was working feverishly to get more investors to come in to keep Xyience viable. My reports were making those efforts nearly impossible. The lawsuit described investors willing to enter into financing with Xyience, but only if my articles were removed from the Internet. As soon as the case resulted in a preliminary injunction against me, Russell Pike sent a representative out to deliver copies of the injunction order to local investors. This rep wrote the following statement in an affidavit I filed in my counterclaim:

The Fertittas always denied through their attorneys that they had anything to do with the suit against me, but it's obvious from this testimony that they forced Xyience's hand. Dana White didn't end up investing anything, but before Fertitta Enterprises went through with their loan package they did get White's approval.

This email chain will be the main exhibit in a new case against Attorney Cogburn in Nevada. There will be much more to come on this front in the days and weeks ahead. Stay Tuned. 

Xyience Dismisses Claims Against Rich Bergeron; Accepts Summary Judgment on Counterclaim

orderdismissingcaseacceptingclaimxyience

By: Rich Bergeron

It's been a long time, but even a six-year legal battle did not deter me from continuing to report the truth about the history and current operations of Xyience. Today I can look back knowing I finally managed to get the claims against me completely dismissed. Four different judges oversaw the case over those six years, and multiple law firms and attorneys for the opposition.

The above order also allows for a summary judgment request on my counterclaim against Xyience to go unopposed, so it marks the first major judgment on my behalf in any legal action I've ever been involved in. It's all the more impressive since the opposing lawyer admitted the now-dissolved $25 million case against me had no merits.  

Though this order officially releases me from any liability and confirms my efforts to expose the truth, it does not end the litigation entirely. I still have an extensive sanctions motion in play with multiple affidavits supporting that motion. My own affidavit and evidence files explain the whole situation, but after a September 19th, 2013 hearing I can honestly say I don't think that presiding Judge Lloyd King bothered to read any of that content. 

Judge King certainly did not even consider the fact that the judge prior to him (Judge Mike Nakagawa) allowed me to amend the motion for the record. Judge Nakagawa would not allow me to amend a motion which had already been decided, which was the contention of the Fertitta lawyers going into this hearing.

The hearing resulted in an indefensible decision I will appeal to the 9th Circuit. That hastily-made ruling proved Judge King is biased against me to the point of believing everything the opposing lawyers contend, even if it happens to be a lie. Judge King actually made the effort to locate and read out loud an order on the motion before him, and that moment will be a major basis for my appeal. If it was a "senior moment" for the aging federal judge, his capacity to continue in such an important judicial role should be seriously questioned at this stage of his career. 

Now, I'm no law school graduate, but the last time I checked a summary judgment denial is not in the same legal ballpark as a complete claim dismissal. How could any acting federal judge get as far as Judge King has without knowing the difference between those two distinctions? 

Judge King read the decision on a 2008 summary judgment request in my case like it was a smoking gun for the Fertitta lawyers during the September 19th hearing. The motion he referred to is actually the most viewed document I currently have on Docstoc.com and can be accessed HERE. The Fertitta lawyers also tried to represent at the September 19th hearing that the same motion was dismissed on the merits, but the actual dismissal order concludes the dismissal is mandated by technicality, because I did not properly serve the motion on all creditors involved in the bankruptcy. I would have had to file my own bankruptcy petition in order to pay the postage alone on such notifications. I don't have the kind of budget most lawyers and law firms typically bring to the legal process. Everything I do is fueled by extremely minimal financial resources. 

So, Judge King read this order denying summary judgment on my sanctions claims. He read it right out loud in court for the record right after trying to explain that it meant the whole issue had already been litigated and dealt with. Why even have a hearing in the first place if his conclusions were true? If he reviewed the record and came to the decision that the Fertitta lawyers were correct in their false representation of the record, there would not even be any basis for holding the hearing where he made this huge mistake. I immediately corrected him at the hearing, but that only made things worse for me. He continued to betray an overwhelming bias against me along with a willingness to praise and commend the opposing lawyers. He even rejected a legally feasible and logically sound request for a default judgment against all parties who did not answer the claims and did not have any representation at the hearing. 

I gave Judge King multiple chances to hold a more comprehensive hearing when I could physically attend, asking for the hearing on September 19th to be considered a scheduling conference. Instead, he allowed the telephonic appearance to be my final say in the matter, and I had a great deal of issues with the court hanging up on me and not being able to hear me clearly. Judge King couldn't even be bothered to come up with any official legal background for his denial of my claims. He left that up to the main opposing attorney and his law firm. 

Gordon Silver is a high-class Las Vegas law firm, and the main guy they put on this case is a managing partner named Greg Garman. This shark is a well-trained and experienced lawyer with a very esteemed position at his firm and in the legal community. So, how could he really confuse the record himself to the point that he put such incredible misrepresentations in print and then repeated them in open court after I corrected him in my reply brief? The most logical answer is that he was never confused at all and just purposely painted the record in a false light to make his case look like it could be easily dispatched on a technicality instead of actually being examined on the merits. Lawyers seem to love winning legal battles on technicalities. It saves them the trouble of actually defending against or pressing claims based on actual facts and evidence. 

This time, the basis for giving Garman the win on a technicality was completely fabricated. His argument that a technicality existed at all made Judge King look like a fish out of water when he tried to take the bait. 

Once again, the September 19th hearing proved to me that justice is an evil bitch. The judicial system in this country is hopelessly bogged down by patronage, abuse, waste, and incompetence. People like me were not intended to be able to even make it this far into the legal process. I jumped through every hoop my opposition put in front of me, and by some miracle I remain standing more than six years into this extensive litigation that went from an obscure district court claim to a major bankruptcy adversary proceeding. I simply could not make it to this point if I did not have the truth on my side. 

Over time I learned to realize that pointing out serious flaws in the opposition's arguments and legal citations did not mean those points would even register with a judge who came into the process as a biased party. I came to appreciate how twisted the system is when it comes to pro-se (self-represented) parties. I knew at some point only an appeal examined by competent and unbiased federal judges would set the record straight. At this point, Mr. Garman hasn't even filed any order to appeal, but I'm eagerly awaiting the moment when I can actually see what the court's official decision will use for a basis in law. 

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the hearing came in the response to my opening comments (which went largely unheard due to a bad connection). Mr. Garman began his statement by confessing that the Fertitta brothers are already suffering due to my work. He did not get into specifics, but he claimed I was responsible for their recent issues with the Nevada Gaming Control Board. If their trouble with the gaming authorities is my doing, I wonder what else about the Fertittas gaming officials might need to know. I haven't even really investigated Station Casinos as much as I have researched the Fertitta involvement in Xyience.  

Garman's remarks proved to me what I've always known in the back of my mind: courts are far too slow at delivering justice. Real justice comes from the court of public opinion. Exposure of inherent evil is often fatal to its ability to fester and grow out of control. Station Casinos has a history of leaving victims behind as the Fertitta brothers continue to hoard their billions in personal assets. As a gaming licensee in Nevada, these casino barons ought to have a much cleaner background than they currently do. The fact that the Fertittas brought Ultimate Poker into legal status as the first official online poker outfit in the state of Nevada is disturbing when you look at what Fertitta Enterprises is really capable of when it comes to fraud. Their connections to the illegal Full Tilt Poker operation through their ownership of Strikeforce is also egregious considering they should have known the illegal status of online poker when they made decisions to retain their sponsorship agreement with the company when it came under Zuffa control. Even worse, US prosecutors labeled Full Tilt Poker a Ponzi Scheme since the outfit's owners were allegedly pocketing player funds. 

The Station Casinos expansion as a management firm into California casinos governed by Native American tribes is even more troubling under the circumstances. Their indirect financial connections to California senators are telling. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also has a son named Key Reid who is on the board of directors for the Fertitta-run Meadows Bank. 

It makes sense that even a federal judge would be afraid to rule against people with this kind of power and access. They are virtually untouchable. Still, Judge King also refused to sanction me despite saying in open court that he actually felt I was the one who deserved sanctions. So, basically he admits he is not willing to even rule in favor of what he feels is actually justified. 

The appeal process should be intriguing, but I also plan to report Judge King to the state bar for displaying a complete lack of ability to do even minimal research into the claims he decided so hastily. The most important development at this stage is regarding my long break from working on this site. The litigation process leading up to my departure from Las Vegas was draining and stressful, and I needed a break from all of it. The hearing designation and dismissal of all claims against me opened new doors and brought me back to the heart of the story and the need to expose the real truth here. 

With no legal obstacles, I can now pursue a non-fiction book project on the case. I can also begin to plan out a documentary. At the rate I'm going, such projects will have a better potential to benefit burned Xyience shareholders than any legal action I could possibly undertake. I am also compiling an extensive report to deliver to Nevada, California, and Native American gaming authorities, which could do more to bring the Fertittas to justice than any judge in any court in this land. Someone must show these ruthless robber barons that there is a price to pay for screwing over innocent people and destroying their investments needlessly and thoughtlessly. 

Although I should be disappointed upon losing the decision on the most important motion in my case thus far, I am actually thrilled. My passion for this story is renewed. My prospects for a successful appeal are promising. Judge King's bias was more pronounced than ever at this latest hearing. Over the next few weeks I will be working to revamp this site to include all the relevant information and documentation detailing the irresponsible and corrupt history behind the Fertitta family facade. Stay Tuned for more frequent updates in the days and weeks to come.

EDITOR'S NOTE:

All stories on this site are now free to read with no subscription fee required. I will be spending some time updating broken links on the site in the next few days. This is mostly due to an unfortunate issue with the loss of all customer files hosted on fileden.com. We had a ton of material hosted there that now needs to be relocated to another public server. Some of these files are now hosted HERE. We will make a formal announcement when all bugs are fixed.