Binion figure sells businesses

Brian Seals

Tuesday, Nov. 10, 1998 | 11:34 a.m.

Rubber Technology International Inc. said Monday it has acquired the mining rights to a Jean sand mine and an interest in a transportation company from an associate of the late Ted Binion.

Las Vegas businessman Rick Tabish sold the assets to the Los Angeles company.

Tabish gained notoriety in September when he was arrested along with two other men in Pahrump after allegedly being caught digging up an estimated $4 million in silver coins and bars from an underground vault owned by Binion a day after Binion's death.

Tabish remains free on bond. Attempts to contact his lawyers and him for comment Monday failed.

Rubber Technology said the deals were part of an effort to vertically integrate the company, which uses rubber in the production of asphalt.

Rubber Technology said it acquired the sand mining rights to about 1,920 acres that lie 6 miles east of Jean. The land is leased from the Bureau of Land Management.

In a related deal, the company said it has acquired all the common shares of MRT Transportation of Nevada Inc., a company controlled by Tabish, as part of the formation of a joint venture. MRT owns and operates 34 truck and trailer units and mine processing equipment.

Both the mining rights and the transportation company were controlled by Tabish, said Fred Schmidt, chief financial officer of Rubber Technology.

Schmidt was aware of Tabish's legal woes, but that did not effect the deal. He noted that negotiations with Tabish were in progress before Tabish became associated with the Binion case. Schmidt said Tabish would stay on as an employee of MRT Transportation.

"We have full faith in Rick," Schmidt said.

Rubber Technology will use the machinery and mining rights in the operation of a tire recycling facility it plans to establish on Lone Mountain Road in North Las Vegas. That plant is expected to be operational by May 1999.

The company paid $650,000 in cash, issued 125,000 shares of stock and assumed $3.1 million in debt as part of the deal. It acquired $5.8 million in assets and mineral rights.

The recycled tires are used to make "rubberized asphalt" used in paving and construction. Initially, the North Las Vegas operation would only shred the tires. The rubber would then be trucked back to Rubber Technology's Los Angeles facility, Schmidt said. As sales are generated and when the company obtains all the necessary permits, the plant would eventually become a full recycling operation.

"We will step up that operation as it sustains itself," Schmidt said.

As for the Binion case, authorities are still investigating the 55-year-old former casino operator's Sept. 17 death.

Tabish, a contractor from Missoula, Mont., remains free on $100,000 bond on the charges in Nye County, where he was arrested along with two other men -- Mike Milot and David Madsen. Tabish said he was acting in accordance with Binion's wishes in digging up the silver. Tabish was hired to build the 12-foot-deep vault for Binion earlier this year.

Since Binion's death, authorities have been looking into a possible link between Tabish and Binion's girlfriend, Sandy Murphy. However, Tabish's lawyer, Louis Palazzo, has denied there was a romantic link between the two.