Aladdin fires back at firm

Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2000 | 10:56 a.m.

Aladdin Gaming LLC said it wants to audit the payment records of a contractor after the contractor accused the Aladdin of defaulting on a $7.539 million payment for the renovation of the Aladdin Theater for the Performing Arts at the Aladdin hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

Korte-Bellew & Associates Construction Co., which said its requests for payment were repeatedly ignored despite completing the project in three instead of the planned eight months, sued Aladdin Gaming in Clark County District Court to foreclose on the hotel-casino and requested that proceeds of the foreclosure sale be applied to the debt.

But Aladdin disputed Korte-Bellew's allegations, saying Aladdin "promptly paid Korte-Bellew for work, often in advance of when payments would otherwise be due under the construction contract."

Aladdin said it learned that despite these prompt payments, Korte-Bellew has failed to pay some of its subcontractors, "some of whom have not been paid since July 2000."

Aladdin said it wants to audit Korte-Bellew because the contractor submitted $5 million in change order requests after the work was completed and because of "incomplete cost support for about $5.2 million in purported acceleration costs."

Richard Goeglein, Aladdin's chief executive, said: "Aladdin has merely invoked its contractual rights to audit the past payments made to Korte-Bellew and Korte-Bellew's final payment submission. We are disappointed that rather than honoring its contractual rights to permit the audit of the past payments made to Korte-Bellew and its final payment submission ... Korte-Bellew has resorted to litigation."