“Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them … well, I have others.”
Any federal litigation that opens with a quote from Groucho Marx is bound to grab attention, even produce a smile.
The allegations that follow in the 95-page lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, however, are no laughing matter. Current and former executives and associates of gaming giant Genting Berhad and Resorts World Las Vegas are accused of civil-racketeering activities in the operation of the Strip casino-resort. Predicate acts alleged include money laundering, willful failure to report suspicious activity, failure to uphold anti-money-laundering (AML) compliance, witness tampering, false imprisonment, and more.
The suit is being brought by former federal prosecutors Kathleen Bliss of Henderson and Michael Volkov of New York on behalf of plaintiffs James Russell, a Las Vegas businessman, and Robert “R.J.” Cipriani, a self-styled high-rolling vigilante who goes by the sobriquet “Robin Hood 702.”
Russell was hustled out of millions by convicted fraudster and tax cheat Brandon Sattler, a litigation co-defendant who performed work at Resorts World. But Cipriani’s name on the litigation is likely making the defendants and other casino executives up and down the Strip cringe.
Cipriani is a blackjack player and headline hunter with a penchant for soliciting information from Strip casino employees and sharing it with IRS and U.S. Homeland Security agents and federal prosecutors from the Central District of California. Those authorities have turned the Strip upside down in their investigations of illegal bookmakers and shoddy AML practices at the MGM Grand, Cosmopolitan, and Resorts World. The criminal cases have resulted in convictions of illegal bookies Wayne Nix, Mathew Bowyer, and Damien Leforbes, as well as former Resorts World Las Vegas president Scott Sibella.
Sibella was largely responsible for opening Resorts World in June 2021, but the casino soon drew scrutiny. Although Sibella has already lost his coveted gaming license and been drummed out of the industry, he’s named as a defendant in the litigation, along with parent company Genting Berhad executive K.T. Lim and a spate of former Resorts World Las Vegas executives.
The lawsuit accuses the company of being a “corrupt racketeering enterprise that operates with complete disregard of basic governance, corporate ethics, and the law.” It uses the related criminal cases and millions in fines levied by Nevada gaming regulators to illustrate its argument that, “Resorts World has proven beyond question that it is unfit and incapable of operating a casino and hotel complex in compliance with the law.”
The Vegas casino-resort last year agreed to pay a $10.5 million fine to the state after allowing illegal bookmakers Bowyer and Leforbes to gamble, despite suspicions about the source of their income.
The wild card in the defendant’s deck is longtime Las Vegas criminal defense attorney David Chesnoff, whose relationship with Sibella, partial ownership of a Resorts World lounge, and other connections to the resort have made him a regular subject of Cipriani’s ire.
For his part, Cipriani claims he was wrongfully arrested and taken into custody after an incident in the casino in November 2021 involving convicted fraudster Robert Alexander, now deceased. The lawsuit accuses Chesnoff of conspiring with Sibella to remove Cipriani from Resorts World’s premises.
Chesnoff, a member of President Donald Trump’s Homeland Security Advisory Council, is also accused of benefiting from an atmosphere of money laundering and noncompliance at Resorts World. Contacted Thursday, Chesnoff referred questions for comment to his own attorney, James Pisanelli.
The lengthy lawsuit lists hundreds of alleged predicate acts, many drawn from the criminal cases involving Bowyer, Leforbes, and Sibella. Other sections of the document include email and text exchanges among Cipriani, casino executives, and Sattler. Much of the material has been in circulation on social media for more than a year.
The lawsuit was filed at a critical time for Resorts World, after it won a licensing recommendation from the New York State Gaming Facility Location Board in its effort to expand its business interests there.
The lawsuit alleges that the company, even after paying millions in fines, has failed to change its behavior.
“In the face of these serious challenges,” it reads, “and after agreeing to the settlement, Genting Berhad and Resorts World now claim that the casino has ‘implemented wholesale changes’ to restore its good name and to continue its operations with proper regard for ethics and compliance. These claims ring hollow in the face of evidence to the contrary; and based on information and belief, including the allegations set forth herein, it is likely that this racketeering enterprise will continue its pattern.”
With all deference to Groucho, this lawsuit isn’t the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.
