Mirage, Tropicana pay fines over Korean debt collections

Friday, Aug. 21, 1998 | 11:04 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Mirage hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip Thursday paid the state a $350,000 fine and admitted some of its marketers committed illegal acts in Korea in collecting debts from high-rolling customers.

Mirage attorney Frank Schreck told the state Gaming Commission the hotel's executives never approved nor knew about the illegal practices of its employees operating out of Korea.

The commission accepted an agreement between the Mirage and the state Gaming Control Board to settle a 12-count complaint. The board said there was no evidence the Mirage was "attempting to engage in any money laundering transaction."

It said the resort has taken "aggressive and prompt remedial action" to prevent a re-occurrence.

The Mirage did not contest an allegation in the complaint that its legal counsel, Bruce Aguilera, lied to a state gaming agent about a meeting with one of the Korean marketers who had been involved in the illegal collections.

It said it "acknowledges that clear and convincing evidence likely exists to substantiate this count and were the matter to proceed to a hearing, the board could likely prove all essential elements ..."

Aguilera, at an Aug. 5 meeting of the control board, denied he had spoken with agent R. Palmer about marketer Laura Choi and whether she was in this country. He suggested the gaming agent was mixed up about the conservation.

The complaint centers on the activities of Choi and Macao Lee in their collections of millions of dollars in markers from players from Korea. The law in that country prohibits taking more than $10,000 outside the country unless special permission is given by the government.

Choi and Lee were able to get the money out of the country by various methods.

The commission also:

--Accepted a stipulation between the Tropicana hotel-casino in Las Vegas and the Control Board to pay a $250,000 fine for similar violations of Korean currency laws. Both resorts have agreed to join a group of casinos in hiring an international law firm to guide it through the laws in collecting markers in Asia.

--Entered a default judgment against former Las Vegas casino owner John Anderson and fined him $250,000. Anderson, who owned the Maxim until he lost it in bankruptcy court, was accused of ignoring a condition on the license that limited the amount he could draw from the hotel to $200,000. The hotel sent $580,000 to Anderson without prior approval. Anderson failed to answer the complaint.