New Zealand Supreme Court on September 22, 2020 decided a suit for $2.2 million dispute between executives of Las Vegas’ Casino.
Two business partners had joined hands with an owner of a winery and vineyard business called Mahana Estates. Mahana Estates was owned by Glenn Schaeffer, former director of the Mandalay Bay Resort Group.
Thereafter, former MGM Resorts International CEO Jim Murren and Daniel Lee, current president of Full House Resorts invested $1.6 million and $700,406 respectively in wineyard business. The two had hoped to become partners and shareholders in Mahana Estates.
However, the disputes arose in 2015 after Murren and Lee discovered that the shares representing their investments were worthless, and that Schaeffer had been spending their money as though it were his own.
Therefore, the New Zealand Supreme Court affirmed trial court’s decision and directed Schaeffer to pay $2.3 million to the two of his fellow Las Vegas’ casino executives.
The business was once New Zealand’s biggest winery-based tourism and hospitality operations but went into receivership in 2018.
According to Court documents Murren stated that, “I would not have invested if I had known the partnership was effectively a shell or a ruse, and that Glenn would instead keep the money and would also keep his own assets and investments in [Mahana] Estates in his own name,” as reported by casino.org.
He was ordered to repay his former business partners their investment, plus interest and $2.5k as costs.