Column: Mohawk backer wins $2.8B judgment

Wednesday, December 12, 2007  

"Not only did the longtime plugger of juicy Catskill casino stories, Joseph Bernstein, win a court victory last week that has the casino giant Harrah's nervous, he's won some hard-earned media coverage to boot.

If you've never heard of him, Bernstein is a Manhattan real estate owner and major shareholder of Empire Resorts, the company that owns Monticello Gaming & Raceway and is trying to develop a $600 million St. Regis Mohawk casino. He is now the leader of Catskill Litigation Trust, which is carrying on a high-stakes fight against Harrah's over alleged dirty dealings involving the Mohawks' first failed attempt to build a casino in Sullivan County.

Bernstein has been on a winning streak. Last week, a federal judge refused to toss the trust's $2.8 billion dollar lawsuit and will consider the case in January.

The story itself reaches back to 2000, when the late CEO of Park Place Entertainment, Arthur Goldberg, swooped down, convinced the Mohawks to stop pursuing a casino at Monticello Gaming & Raceway, in favor of Park Place and the classic Catskills resort, Kutsher's, a few miles away.

The trust and a faction within the Mohawks believe that Park Place never intended to build a casino — that it was a ruse to protect Park Place's Atlantic City interests. Harrah's, which acquired Park Place by buying Caesar's, has inherited the lawsuit. The trust, in partnership with the Mohawks, is asking a federal judge to uphold a tribal court decision of $1.8 billion against Harrah's, and $1 billion in interest, for derailing the casino project. The amount would be unprecedented (Federal courts have upheld tribal court judgments in the range of $1 million and less.) It would make the Mohawks and Bernstein very rich."

Get the Story:
Victor Whitman: Casino plugger Bernstein wins case, media hype (The Middletown Times Herald-Record 12/12)