Mirage sues Trump Hotels, claims trade secrets were stolen

Wednesday, April 21, 1999 | 9:25 a.m.

In a lawsuit filed late Tuesday in Clark County District Court, Mirage Resorts seeks unspecified monetary damages. Mirage also seeks an injunction prohibiting Trump Hotels from using the contested documents, which include a list of valued Mirage customers.

Mirage Resorts Chairman Steve Wynn said in a statement that the filing was the first salvo in a barrage of revelations.

"What will be revealed will demonstrate the most outrageous misconduct, the most flagrant violations of law and decent behavior in the history of the hotel industry," Wynn said in the statement. "The behavior of Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts and its agents will be a chronicle of activities demonstrating a complete lack of integrity."

Nicholas Ribis, president and chief executive officer of Trump Hotels, said he was unaware of the lawsuit and could not comment.

The lawsuit does not specify whether Paul Liu, a senior vice president of international marketing, and Laura Choi, a marketing representative, were still working for the company at the time they were alleged to have funneled confidential information to Trump Hotels.

However, the lawsuit claims they delivered the secrets during the periods covered by their employment agreements, which contained confidentiality and non-compete clauses.

According to the lawsuit, Liu was hired in November 1995 as a senior vice president of international marketing. His employment agreement stipulated he would be based in the New York-New Jersey area.

He was responsible for courting Mirage Resorts' top players, the lawsuit says. In this position, he had access to confidential trade secrets, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims that while still bound by his Mirage employment agreement, Liu disclosed some of these secrets and directed existing and potential Mirage Resorts patrons to Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, N.J.

According to the lawsuit, the Nevada-based Choi was hired in 1992 as a Korean marketing representative for The Mirage. She was responsible for cultivating Mirage patrons from Korea.

In 1997, Choi was at the center of allegations that The Mirage violated South Korean currency laws and state gaming reporting regulations. Nevada gaming regulators alleged Choi and another Mirage marketer collected gambling debts of more than $1 million from Koreans and brought the money back to Las Vegas in violation of South Korean laws.

The Mirage paid a $350,000 fine in August 1998, though it admitted no wrongdoing and said it relied on flawed legal advice from South Korea.

Choi was sentenced to a year in jail by the South Korean courts, although the sentence was suspended. In the complaint filed Tuesday, Mirage Resorts alleges she converted about $500,000 of the company's money to her own use and, beginning in early 1998, provided player information to Trump Hotels.

The lawsuit also alleges Joseph Guzzardo, whom it identifies as a Trump Hotels executive based in New Jersey, played a key role in acquiring the documents from Liu and Choi. Guzzardo also is a defendant in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit is the latest in a long-running feud between Wynn and Trump. In 1991, Mirage Resorts Inc., then known as Golden Nugget Inc., sued Trump and Dennis Gomes, a Wynn executive who had accepted appointment as president of Trump Taj Mahal. The lawsuit was settled in 1994.