Corporate Raiders of Las Vegas Launching Campaign to Move Oakland Raiders to Sin City; Fertittas Making Slick Moves to Liquidate Assets for NFL Team Purchase

By: Rich Bergeron

As a passionate NFL fan who happens to also have unique insight into the number one mixed martial arts organization on the planet, I'd like this article serve as a formal warning to the National Football League...

The Fertittas owning the Oakland Raiders or having anything to do with that storied franchise, or any other NFL team with such a solid football history will forever taint your organization. To put it bluntly: the brothers Fertitta are bad news, period.

It is a wonder to me that the Fertitta brothers (now through Red Rock Resorts) can still legally hold and profit off a gaming license in the state of Nevada in light of their own HISTORY. Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta III are not now, and they never will be... real "team" players. Here are three reasons why:

1.) They are always paying themselves first in every business deal they design, and they will do whatever it takes to create vast wealth off of shady and ruthless business practices.

2.) They have a documented history of abusing the bankruptcy courts to benefit themselves off the backs of hundreds of innocent investors.

3.) The Fertitta ownership of the UFC is a prime example of why they would be the worst possible owners of an NFL team the league could even imagine. UFC fighters are often saddled with egregious contracts that are riddled with complicated performance clauses and other nuances that make it very difficult for them to maximize their earning potential.

These slick Vegas casino baron brothers might be making stadium plans after collecting a boatload of liquid assets through their IPO of Station Casinos, but they are far from suitable owners for a major sports franchise in the NFL.

In their case, NFL ought to stand for "No Frank and Lorenzo."

The Oakland Raiders would be a great fit in Las Vegas, don't get me wrong. I'd love to see that city with an official NFL team, and it would generate local and international interest. I lived in Las Vegas for about two years (thanks in part to the Fertittas and their lawyers), and the city needs something like a big NFL stadium to stimulate the local economy and bring a different demographic to the area to enjoy something other than gambling and showgirls.

The main problem here with the proposed move is the movers. There are plenty of other fair players and sports enthusiasts based in Las Vegas who would be better ambassadors for the sport of football. NFL officials, please beware of these evil-minded brothers who wield an iron fist over the sport of mixed martial arts as it is. Even if they divest themselves from their casinos and the UFC, bringing them onboard the big NFL ownership bus means bringing their whole ugly past with them. It sends a bad message to honest people everywhere...nice guys finish last and greed is great.

The prior business moves and absolute disregard for the people they built their fortunes off the backs of is proof enough of the Fertitta brothers being unfit for NFL ownership. If there is any way to prevent any sale of an NFL team to this brotherhood, NFL officials should take that course of action and seek other investors who are unrelated to the Fertittas and their ugly shadow cast by a history of family corruption and financial scheming. The Oakland Raiders may need a figurative Hail Mary to stay alive in the league, but involving the Fertittas in their franchise as financial backers is like inviting the devil himself to be part of the ownership group. The Oakland Raiders can choose from a multitude of "lesser evils" in Sin City to build the franchise on a new frontier.

As an NFL fan who appreciates the growth of the sport amidst so many challenges like the concussion situation and the criminal tendencies exhibited by so many players in the league, I look at Fertitta ownership of an NFL team as a stain on the sport it will never be able to erase. I consider Fertitta ownership of an NFL team to be a crime against the sport itself.

I sincerely hope the National Football League engages in a due dilligence investigation into the past business dealings of the Fertitta Brothers before they hand Lorenzo and Frank the keys to Raiders Kingdom. Their civil litigation history alone is enough to raise plenty of concerns as to their ability to fairly manage such an undertaking without resorting to their familiar MO of scheming and scamming to line their own pockets. The NFL is rife with enough scandal without the shade these two brothers bring to the collective bargaining table.

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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.