Siddiqui
The Palms casino resort in Las Vegas is suing to recover $2.66 million in gambling debt it says was racked up by indicted former "whale" and Fry’s Electronics Inc. official Ausaf "Omar" Siddiqui.
Siddiqui was sued by the Palms on Sunday and again on Monday by Fry’s in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in San Jose, Calif. Both actions were lawsuit-like adversary complaints.
Siddiqui was indicted in December 2008 in what the IRS described as a kickback scheme in which, as vice president of merchandising and operations, he demanded and received $65.6 million in kickbacks from Fry’s vendors to put their products on Fry's shelves. The money was used to support his lavish lifestyle and gambling excursions, the government said.
Sentencing is set for December after a Fry’s official said the former executive pleaded guilty in the scheme, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
Siddiqui, of Palo Alto, Calif., filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation on July 13, listing assets of $6.95 million against liabilities of $136.56 million – including millions of dollars owed to Las Vegas casinos for gambling debts.
A San Jose Mercury News story described him as once being a prized "whale," or high-roller in Las Vegas "who demanded that casino butlers and bellboys call him 'Mr. S' and fill his room with golden raisins, bottles of Dom Pérignon and Glitterati Mentissimo peppermints adorned with a single rose."
Attorneys for the Palms, in Sunday’s complaint, said Siddiqui’s debt to the Palms should not be discharged, or canceled, through his bankruptcy because the debt involved fraud.
The Palms says in the complaint that on Aug. 23, 2008, Siddiqui obtained $2.545 million in gambling credit of which $2.045 million in principal amount is unpaid – and that $2.663 million is now due including interest, collection costs and attorney’s fees.
Siddiqui had written a personal check against his Wells Fargo account for $2 million to cover most of the debt, but the Palms later found he had stopped payment on the check "and that the instrument was worthless," the complaint says.
"Defendant’s conduct in failing to disclose that he had wrongfully stopped payment on his personal check number 1609 assured that the personal check would be dishonored, and constitutes defendant’s intentional and deliberate fraud against plaintiff, or otherwise obtaining credit by false pretenses and material representation," the Palms complaint says. "Grounds exist for denying dischargeability of defendant’s debt to plaintiff, as defendant obtained credit for the purpose of gambling through the use of materially false statements in writing."
Siddiqui’s bankruptcy filing listed numerous gambling debts including money possibly owed or owed to Aspinalls in London; the Barona casino in Lakeside, Calif., Caesars Palace in Las Vegas ($5.7 million), the Hard Rock in Las Vegas ($1 million), Les Ambassadeurs in London, Maxims in London, the Mohegan tribe in Connecticut and the MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas (combined $11.5 million).
A separate complaint was filed in the bankruptcy case on Monday by Fry’s, which asserted that as part of the kickback scheme Siddiqui had obtained money through his employment at Fry’s under false pretenses and that he owes Fry’s $65.6 million
Siddiqui’s bankruptcy attorney couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on Monday.