Mirage paying for info on Trump

David Strow

Thursday, July 22, 1999 | 11:12 a.m.

The Las Vegas private investigator who said he provided confidential Mirage Resorts documents to arch-rival Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts has reversed course and is now on the Mirage payroll, court documents show.

In a recent affidavit, a Mirage attorney testified that Louis "Curt" Rodriguez was hired as a Mirage investigator on April 20, the day Mirage filed a lawsuit against Trump. Rodriguez is being paid $120,000 to provide investigation services in support of the Mirage lawsuit over the next year.

In a recent filing, Trump attorneys implied that the hiring bordered on bribery, and said Rodriguez "has been in bed with (Mirage) from the start." They requested an emergency hearing on the issue, and asked for permission to investigate.

Rodriguez is still a defendant in the lawsuit and Steve Wynn's Mirage is fighting to keep him there. Four defendants have filed a motion to have Rodriguez reclassified as a plaintiff since he's now cooperating with Mirage.

Mirage's April 20 lawsuit accused Trump of conceiving a plot to steal lists of Mirage's Asian high-rollers. Named as co-defendants were New York private investigator William Kish, Trump employee Joseph Guzzardo, and former Mirage employees Laura Choi and Paul Liu. Mirage also accused Choi of embezzling $500,000 in debts collected from its Korean players. Choi responded with a countersuit alleging defamation and false termination.

Rodriguez provided damaging testimony against the defendants last month, when he admitted to being hired by Kish to help undermine Mirage's operations on behalf of Trump. Rodriguez claims he was provided at least one list of Korean Mirage patrons by Choi, which he said he gave to Kish.

The April 20 letter from Mirage attorney Barry Langberg to Rodriguez stated that Mirage had agreed not to "execute upon any judgment it may obtain against you" as part of the investigation agreement. Mirage warned that it would kill that agreement if it found Rodriguez was providing untruthful information to Mirage.

However, the company made it clear that it did not expect Rodriguez to modify his testimony as a condition of the agreement. He was expected to provide "truthful and complete (testimony), without regard to this agreement."

Donald Trump's company, Kish, Guzzardo and Liu have alleged that Rodriguez is a "sham defendant," placed among the other defendants to get the case moved from federal court to state court, and to provide damaging testimony on behalf of Mirage.

"Candidly, Rodriguez has been in bed with the plaintiffs from the start," said a motion filed by Kish and Guzzardo last week.

The motion hinted that Rodriguez's hiring bordered on bribery.

"Mirage is paying Rodriguez a large sum of money for his purported consulting services," the motion said. "This brings into question what Mirage is receiving for such a large sum of money."

Rodriguez is a Nevada resident. Court procedures dictate that if at least one of the defendants lives in the same state as the plaintiff, the case must be tried in state court, not federal court.

Mirage originally filed the case in Nevada state court, but Trump was successful in getting the case moved to federal court in May.

Mirage responded that the defendants were being "paranoid" in their arguments that a conspiracy was afoot. Rodriguez must be kept on as a defendant, Mirage argued, because his shield from prosecution is only conditional and the company still wants to obtain a judgment against him.

Mirage also contended that Choi is a Nevada resident, thus requiring the case be moved out of federal court. In support of this argument, Mirage provided evidence that Choi owned a Las Vegas home and held her car registration and driver's license in Nevada.

Choi countered that she lives in a Torrance, Calif., apartment with her son, and has only made "very short visits" to Nevada to visit family. While she admitted she owns the Las Vegas home, she said it is occupied by her mother and brother. She said she registered her car in Nevada, rather than California, to avoid high registration costs in that state.

In support of her affidavit, Choi provided copies of her California utility bills, bank accounts and her son's report cards. Choi added that Mirage was well aware of her California residency, as Mirage investigators staked out her residence there from October 1998 to March 1999. Unidentified people working on behalf of Mirage contacted her at least three times over that period, Choi testified.

A federal judge on Wednesday ruled the case will stay in federal court.