Attorney says Mirage offered to settle with debt collection figure

Grace Leong

Monday, Oct. 30, 2000 | 11:36 a.m.

Newly filed court documents show Laura Choi, a former Mirage Resorts Inc. employee who was at the center of a 1997 South Korean gambling debt collection scandal, was willing to settle a lawsuit alleging invasion of privacy by Mirage for $1 million.

But Mirage only offered $400,000 in cash to settle the case, said an affidavit filed by Daniel Marks, Choi's former attorney.

Marks filed a motion last week to withdraw as Choi's counsel for the lawsuit.

Marks, who said Choi terminated his services after her invasion of privacy lawsuit was filed Sep. 26, said in an Oct. 13 letter to Choi that Mirage's attorney had offered $400,000 to resolve the case and the Mirage "wants title to any funds that are remaining of the monies (Choi) collected in Korea."

"If more than $400,000 is remaining in Korea that they can obtain they would give the difference above $400,000 to you. Since you have previously stated that you do not want to accept any settlement under $1 million, I am assuming that you are turning this settlement down. If this is not the case, please advise in writing," Marks said.

MGM MIRAGE spokesman Alan Feldman declined comment. MGM MIRAGE is the parent company of Mirage Resorts.

Choi's latest lawsuit repeats many of the allegations she made earlier against Mirage in a suit she filed in California Superior Court in Los Angeles and in a federal wrongful termination lawsuit in Las Vegas.

Choi's charges center around the activities of Los Angeles private investigator Louis Curt Rodriguez, whom she said was supposed to be working for her in her wrongful termination case against Mirage, but instead was secretly working as a double agent for Mirage against her and Mirage rival Donald Trump.

Choi claimed Rodriguez secretly taped his conversations with her and also allegedly delivered private documents to Mirage, including a 45-page transcript of a conversation she had with her attorney. Choi also alleged Rodriguez leaked information to Mirage that she planned to file a lawsuit against Mirage "within three weeks" -- a move Choi claims prompted Mirage to file a lawsuit against her and Trump in April. Choi was fired by Mirage in 1998 after her arrest and imprisonment in South Korea for violating a law against collection of large gambling debts there. Mirage, which admitted no wrongdoing, paid a $350,000 fine to the Nevada Gaming Commission over the incident.