A California court docket has awarded Parkwest Casinos founder John Park $47.4 million in compensatory damages from his ex-lawyer. That’s for sabotaging his bid to buy a 50 p.c stake in San Jose’s On line casino M8trix, per court docket paperwork.
John Park wished to purchase 50 p.c of On line casino M8trix in 2016. However his former lawyer had different concepts. (Picture: San Jose Highlight)
Park sued his former council Tracey Buck-Walsh in 2016, claiming she had thwarted his efforts to safe the stake in On line casino M8trix. She allegedly did so by “utilizing Park’s confidential info, aiding his opponents, and making disparaging remarks about Park to regulators and others.”
From 2003 to 2012, Buck-Walsh had supplied authorized providers for Park’s gaming pursuits, which embody the Lotus On line casino in Sacramento, the Cordova Restaurant & On line casino in Rancho Cordova, in addition to card golf equipment in Lodi, Petaluma, and Livermore.
This concerned representing Parkwest Casinos earlier than the California Playing Management Fee and the Bureau of Playing Management. However the relationship between Park and Buck-Walsh broke down due to a dispute about billing charges.
Moral Breaches
Subsequently, Park agreed to accumulate half of On line casino M8trix from its then-co-owner Eric Swallow. However Swallow’s equal companions within the enterprise, Peter and Jeanine Lunardi, tried to dam the deal, they usually employed Buck-Walsh.
The sale was additionally held up by inaction from the playing fee, in line with Park’s lawsuit. Ultimately, in 2017, the fee authorized the sale of Swallow’s stake, however to not Park, to the Lunardis and two new companions, Patrick and Jamie Tierney.
Park alleged in his grievance that Buck Walsh had informed the regulator to not approve the his deal. He claimed she used information she had gained as his former lawyer to badmouth him and sink the settlement, breaching her fiduciary responsibility.
I feel the jury discovered the conduct of Tracy Buck-Walsh was in breach of any variety of moral obligations she had,” Park’s lawyer, Scott Garner, informed The San José Highlight. “You may inform they have been in all probability offended by her conduct.”
Buck-Walsh is anticipated to enchantment the decision, in line with The Highlight.
Park has a separate lawsuit in opposition to the Lunardis that claims they interfered along with his contractual proper to purchase Swallow’s stake.
A lawyer for the Lunardis, Maurren Harrongton, informed The Highlight this week her purchasers held a contractual proper of first refusal to buy all of the shares in On line casino M8trix, which they exercised.
Conspiracy Concept?
Swallow misplaced his gaming license in 2015 and had little alternative however to promote up. That was after each he and the Lunardis have been hit with comparable accusations that they misrepresented On line casino M8trix revenues to keep away from paying taxes.
However Swallow was handled much more harshly than his enterprise companions. Whereas the Lunardis retained their license and paid a $250,000 penalty, Swallow misplaced his and was fined a file $13.8 million by the gaming fee.
Swallow sued the fee in a federal court docket in 2018, claiming the regulator had conspired with the Lunardis in opposition to him. However the case was dismissed, and the claims are unproven.
Peter Lunardi handed away in 2020.
