Elvis Presley performing at the then-International Hotel, now the Westgate, back in 1969. Their estate is now suing the casino to rescue priceless memorabilia, which it says is being held hostage in a appropriate dispute.
The Elvis Presley estate is suing the former Overseas resort, now the Westgate, an off-strip hotel and casino when the renowned performer played 100s of sold out programs, which it claims is holding many texas tea slot machine for sale regarding the King’s treasured personal possessions hostage.
While Elvis was historically renowned for summarily ‘leaving the building’ after nonstop applause and calls for encores back in his performance days, his memorabilia is currently very much stuck inside the building at the Westgate.
In what could be known as a ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ moment, the estate filed a lawsuit Monday in Clark County District Court in a bid to recover the precious artifacts lent to the Westgate casino a year ago.
These generally include many of Elvis’ original stage outfits, their famously ostentatious jewelry, and some letters, because well due to the fact TV remote from their Graceland mansion. These items all were an element of the much-feted, yet ill-fated, ‘Graceland Presents Elvis’ attraction, launched during the Westgate last April.
Viva Las Vegas
The Westgate might not be the best-known of vegas’ casino resorts these days, nonetheless it includes a big history in Sin City.
Built by Las Vegas pioneer Kirk Kerkorian as the International resort in 1969, when construction was completed, it was the hotel that is biggest on the planet at that time.
Elvis, riding high on his late-1960s comeback, immediately finalized a contract with Kerkorian, and performed 58 sold-out that is consecutive at the International, breaking all vegas attendance documents. Throughout the following seven years, he played there very nearly 600 times and also lived into the Penthouse regarding the 30th floor when he had been performing there.
In fact, the casino to his contract, written on a tablecloth (evidently with no attorneys around), is one of many impounded items and is now considered well worth $1 million.
Last year, eager to capitalize on its pop-culture heritage, the Westgate teamed up with a company called Exhibit A Circle on that Graceland Presents Elvis task.
Avoid Being Cruel
On April 24, the 59th anniversary of Elvis’ first-ever Las Las vegas performance, former spouse Priscilla and just daughter Lisa Marie slice the blue suede ribbon to declare the exhibition open, while the Elvis Show, a complete recreation of the King’s International concerts, played every night for the opening week.
The Westgate spent millions of dollars renovating its theater therefore that it became an exact reproduction of its 1970’s self, too as plowing money to the event space. The casino even created a brand new elvis-themed wedding chapel in preparation for an exhibition which was contractually obliged to last a ten years, at a minimum.
But then display A Circle actually didleave the building, really literal and, according to Westgate, contractually violating feeling.
While Exhibit A Circle has offered no official reason for quitting, the suspicious minds at Westgate believe the exhibition business has defaulted on its 10-year lease and launched legal action of its very own.
But Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. has accused Westgate of ‘aggressively seizing the valuables without a genuine basis’ as a means to gain leverage in its case against Exhibit A Circle.
Were Elvis still residing in the penthouse, we suspect he may have popped a cap into his television set about all of this. But it comes to lawsuits, only attorneys end up as winners as it is, wise men say that when.
Donald Trump Denies Knowing Mobster, Could Alleged Connections Affect Tuesday Florida Main Results?
Donald Trump has made this debate and primary season one of the most watchable ever. Whether you love, hate, or feel indifferent to the businessman billionaire and GOP frontrunner, you can’t say he’s dull to view.
Did Donald Trump know a reported associate of New Jersey mob boss John Gotti (pictured here)? (Image: dailymail.co.uk)
Now, with the all-important winner-takes-all-delegates Florida main looming next Tuesday and the force on the Donald to trounce opponent and Sunshine State senator Marco Rubio, every skeleton in Trump’s closet is developing.
And one that’s emerged this week involved his alleged involvement with a reported associate of John Gotti, a prominent nj mobster, straight back in the early 1990s.
The reputed crime boss died in jail from throat cancer in 2002 at the age of 61, but Trump’s alleged six-degrees connections to the infamous Mafioso is actually a sticking point for the candidate.
Mob Connections Alleged
Returning to 1991, Atlantic City’s Trump Plaza was fined $650,000 by nj-new Jersey regulators for presumably courting a foul-mouthed, racist mobster with links to Gotti, according to a current report by Yahoo journalist Michael Isikoff.
Donald Trump ended up being forced to deny this week that he knew Robert LiButti, a roller that is high the Plaza who reportedly demanded that black and female casino employees not be permitted to deal at his games. LiButti had been fundamentally barred from all Atlantic City casinos for their Mob connections, and in 1994 was imprisoned for five years for tax fraud.
The revelations came to light via Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) documents recently obtained by Yahoo under the latest Jersey Open Public Records Act.
Those reports expose that the gangster frequently berated women and ethnic minorities using ‘the vilest language,’ in accordance with one official, and ordered them become taken off his sight while he was at the casino.
Meanwhile, in return for his patronage, says the report, the Trump Plaza showered LiButti with gifts, including at least nine luxury vehicles, worth $1.6 million; $279,978 in event tickets; five European holidays; $121,712 of jewelry, and $40,020 in champagne.
The casino had been fined $200,000 for racial discrimination and an additional $450,000 for the gifts. At the right time, New Jersey laws barred money comps for high rollers.
‘During the years we really effectively ran the casino company, we knew many high rollers,’ Trump told Yahoo. ‘i assume Mr. LiButti was one of them, but I don’t recognize the true name.’
Many sources suggest that Trump’s assertion is unlikely, not least LiButti’s daughter, Edith Creamer.
‘Lose the Broad’
‘Of course he was known by him. We flew in the [Trump] helicopter with Ivana [Trump’s ex-wife] and the kids. My father travelled it up and down,’ Creamer told Isikoff.
‘ My 35th birthday celebration had been at the Plaza and Donald ended up being there. After the ongoing celebration, we went on his boat, his big yacht. I like Trump,’ she added, ‘but it p*sses me personally off which he denies knowing my father. That hurts me.’
According to the Yahoo story, in 1990 former Plaza professional Edward Tracy consented to wear a wire in conversions with LiButti, at the behest of police.
In a transcript of this ensuing conversation, LiButti claims, ‘I’m very close with him [Trump],’ but told Tracy that Trump needed seriously to ‘lose the broad,’ talking about Maria Maples, who Donald later married.
‘He’s lost that aggressiveness’ said LiButti. ‘Walks around like a f***ing banana. We can’t think it’s Donald Trump. I don’t realize it.’
LiButti died in 2011, around the time Trump was first making noises about running for president.
‘I’m going to vote for that SOB,’ he apparently told his daughter before he passed.
JPMorgan Gambling Addict Broker Gets Simply 5 Years for $22 Million Embezzlement
Former JPMorgan Chase broker Michael Oppenheim, who spent over $22 million of his clients’ money chasing his gambling losses, was sentenced to just five years in jail by a US District Judge this week.
Michael Oppenheim, former broker for JPMorgan, who stole over $22 million from clients because of his gambling addiction, received a reasonably light sentence this week in federal court. (Image: Reuters/Brendan McDermid)
Judge Analisa Torres went easy on the defendant within the light of his apparent remorse and determination to fight his gambling addiction, that has been exacerbated by the birth of a disabled child, the court heard.
‘I have always been cognizant that gambling is a mental disorder which is aggravated during periods of stress and depression,’ said Torres, in rejecting the ten-year sentence requested by the prosecution.
‘I recognize that what I did was horrible,’ Oppenheim stated prior to sentencing. ‘we always thought I happened to be one or two trades away from fixing everything. For me personally, one bet is one too many. If We had been not in the grips with this addiction, i’d not have taken hardly any money.’
He claimed their brain had been ‘hijacked’ by gambling addiction.
Hide and look for
Oppenheim, who at one point handled 500 consumers and had access to almost $90 million in funds, pled guilty last November to four counts of cable fraudulence, and another count all of embezzlement, securities fraud, and investment adviser fraud.
The court heard that he had covered up the embezzlement by doctoring his customers’ account statements as he moved funds from a account to another, playing ‘hide and look for’ with customers’ money, based on the FBI.
Oppenheim’s attorneys stated he started betting on NFL games dating back to 1993. After losing a six-figure amount, he started to take from customers to cover his mounting losses. Sooner or later, he moved on to options trading, where he once lost $2.7 million in just one day, in a high-risk effort to break even.
‘Judge, I am ashamed of my conduct,’ he said during trial. ‘I wish I would are caught sooner.’
New York Federal Reserve Deflects Responsibility for $100 Million Cyber Heist, But Had Been Casinos Cash Launderers?
The ny Federal Reserve says it had been tangled up in no wrongdoing in what appears to be a successful $100 million cyber heist month that is last.
Good as gold: Although thieves never even stepped foot in the New York Federal Reserve building in Manhattan, they was able to steal $100 million via cyber SWIFT codes before allegedly laundering it through three Filipino casinos. (Image: untappedcities.com)
On 5, hackers looted the Central Bank of Bangladesh’s Federal Reserve Account, stored in Manhattan, by scheduling a $100 million wire transfer through the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications network (SWIFT) february.
What happened next will depend on who you believe.
The general understanding, however, is that the funds were promptly delivered from the Federal Reserve to Philippines bank Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC), after which distributed through a black colored market currency exchange broker, before being laundered internationally through at least three casinos.
New York Federal Reserve boss William Dudley said no compromise had been experienced on his end, and that the obligation needs to be placed on SWIFT.
‘The payment instructions were fully authenticated by the SWIFT texting system in accordance with standard authentication protocols,’ Dudley spokeswoman Andrea Priest said in a press launch.
Bangladesh authorities argue otherwise. ‘ We kept money with the Federal Reserve Bank and irregularities must be with the social people who handle the funds there,’ Bangladesh Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith explained to Bloomberg Information.
Swift Action
Muhith told reporters on Tuesday that his country will take legal action to recover the stolen funds, but didn’t go so far as to threaten a genuine lawsuit up against the NY branch (there are 12 in all) for the American federal banking system. Now more than a thirty days since the theft that is alleged with no party has yet taken the blame, to no one’s surprise given the potential legal repercussions.
Belgian-based SWIFT said it wouldn’t comment on individual cases, but did say that it authenticates ‘between delivering and institutions that are receiving before approving any transaction.
RCBC in addition has denied involvement, saying that it doesn’t work with gambling enterprises. The bank did confirm an $81 million deposit ended up being finished through certainly one of its branches and that its investigations unit is probing the transfer.
Back in the US, the Fed says it is dealing with the Bangladesh Central Bank, but retains its position that there is no proof the country’s account was breached.
The Federal Reserve in Manhattan provides banking accounts and transaction services for some 250 countries that are foreign. Bangladesh’s foreign currency reserve balance is currently around $27 billion.
More Safeguards Needed
While a $100 million transfer at your neighborhood community bank would definitely raise a good amount of eyebrows, it likely didn’t cause suspicion that is much the NY Federal Reserve, where more than $2.6 trillion in assets is ( supposed to be) safeguarded.
Assuming the Bangladesh heist was indeed done by crooks and maybe not a job that is inside the robbery should stress the continued need to create more advanced cyber safeguards. The largest Federal Reserve in the usa being so effortlessly compromised is surely reason for much concern for just about everybody.
In fact, other federal organizations are taking proactive measures to better defend their operations online. Earlier this month, the Pentagon invited vetted hackers to try and infiltrate its private community and public websites.
‘Hack the Pentagon’ is a bounty competition where approved hackers are rewarded for infiltrating and exposing areas prone to intrusion.
‘I am confident that this innovative initiative will strengthen our electronic defenses and ultimately enhance our nationwide security,’ US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said associated with certainly unusual, but apparently much-needed, program.
