Appeals court affirms judgment against Japanese highroller

Thursday, Sept. 25, 1997 | 2:06 a.m.

But Las Vegas attorney Domnic Gentile is disputing assertions that the same ruling applies to him.

"It's an unclear order at this point," Gentile.

A bankruptcy judge in September 1995 ordered Gentile and Ken Mizuno, his client, to pay the damages to Mizuno's bankruptcy estate.

The judge ruled at the time that the two men violated an automatic stay in the case when they continued to make court filings asserting Mizuno's property rights to millions in assets.

Mizuno forfeited some $600 million in property when his business, Ken International, pleaded guilty in Las Vegas to money laundering and other charges.

Authorities accused the corporation of overselling country club memberships to Japanese investors and funneling some of the proceeds to the United States.

A California judge released Gentile and Mizuno from the $307,000 judgment in December 1995, but representatives of the bankrupt estate then appealed that decision to the 9th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Gentile said he plans to petition the court for clarification of the ruling and to seek a new hearing regarding the judgment against Mizuno. He said he has shown the decision to several other lawyers, and all of them share the opinion that it applies only to Mizuno.

Craig Millet, a California attorney representing the Japanese administrator of Mizuno's bankruptcy estate, said the ruling applies to both Gentile and Mizuno.

Millet said Mizuno, 63, was convicted in March of fraud and tax evasion in Japan and is now serving an 11-year prison sentence in that country.