A Toronto real estate businessman and gambling high-roller
is sought in Nevada on charges that he failed to repay $12.9 million in debts
to two Las Vegas-area casinos more than five years ago, authorities said
Thursday.
Semion Kronenfeld, 43, was named in an arrest warrant issued
after a Clark County District Court grand jury charged him in a 12-count
indictment with felony theft, bad cheques and obtaining money under false pretenses.
The case is among the largest casino debt cases to reach
court in Nevada. If he's convicted, Kronenfeld could face decades in state
prison.
Kronenfeld's attorney in Las Vegas, Craig Mueller, didn't
immediately respond Thursday to messages seeking comment.
Prosecutor Jake Merback, head of the Clark County district
attorney's office bad cheque unit, said it wasn't clear where Kronenfeld was.
Ontario real estate firm owner
Authorities said after Kronenfeld's case became public in
2009 that he listed his occupation on casino credit records as the owner of an
investment real estate company based in Ontario, and that he had an Israeli
passport. He has also spelled his last name Cronenfeld.
The indictment handed up Wednesday accuses him of failing to
repay $7.9 million in casino IOUs written in October 2008 at The Venetian
resort on the Las Vegas Strip and $5 million less than two weeks later at the
Green Valley Ranch resort in Henderson.
Fraudulent cheques
Nevada treats written casino IOUs, known as markers, like
fraudulent cheques. State law lets prosecutors collect a 10 per cent processing
and prosecution fee with any settlement. Most cases are resolved before charges
are filed.
The case against Kronenfeld is one of the largest to reach
court since the Nevada state legislature added "credit extended by any
licensed gaming establishment" to state bad cheque law in 1995.
In 2009, Terrance "Terry" Watanabe, the wealthy
former owner of the Omaha, Neb.-based Oriental Trading Co., was indicted on
allegations he failed to pay $14.75 million in casino debts. He counter-sued
Harrah's Entertainment Inc., before both sides reached a confidential settlement
in July 2010.
Other large casino bad cheque cases include a $2.5 million
bad cheque dispute between Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis and casinos
owned by Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn, and the conviction in 2011 of
former NBA All-Star Antoine Walker.
The Francis-Wynn case is pending before the Nevada Supreme
Court.
Walker pleaded guilty before trial, was sentenced to five
years' probation and ordered to pay about $770,000 in restitution.
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