Mirage debt collection figure suing attorney

Grace Leong

Wednesday, April 18, 2001 | 11:08 a.m.

Laura Choi, a former Mirage Resorts Inc. employee who was at the center of a 1997 South Korean gambling debt collection scandal, is accusing one of her former attorneys of legal malpractice in charges added to her invasion of privacy lawsuit against Mirage.

Choi's amended lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, includes as defendants Las Vegas attorney David Winterton and his law firm. Winterton was to have represented her in a wrongful termination lawsuit against Mirage.

She accused Winterton, whom she claims was introduced to her by private investigator Louis Curt Rodriguez, of violating Choi's attorney-client privilege when he provided Choi's confidential documents including a 45-page transcript of a conversation to Rodriguez.

Choi alleged in a Sep. 26 invasion of privacy lawsuit that Rodriguez 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 Choi and Mirage rival Donald Trump.

Choi claims Tom Sheer, identified in the lawsuit as a Mirage senior vice president and Eugene Harding, Mirage's manager of corporate security, both of whom she identified as former FBI agents, directed the alleged double-cross against her and that Mirage employees hired another private investigator, R. David Groover, to "handle" Rodriguez in an attempt to distance Mirage from Rodriguez.

But in her latest complaint, Choi claims her attorney-client relationship with Winterton was a "sham" and that her legal position was undermined when he allegedly permitted Rodriguez to be present during attorney-client meetings and allegedly provided confidential documents including her tax returns and bank account information to Rodriguez.

Winterton could not be reached for comment on Choi's allegations.

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 in that nation. Choi claims she was fired after she spurned Mirage's attempts to persuade her to falsify her testimony to the Nevada Gaming Commission, which was investigating the Mirage for the violation of Korean currency laws.

Mirage, admitting no wrongdoing, paid a $350,000 fine to the Commission over the incident.

Defendants in Choi's original suit include Rodriguez and his company, Empire Pacific Group Inc., Sheer, Harding and Groover. But Choi, in her latest complaint, dismissed all defendants except Rodriguez and Empire Pacific.

Choi claimed Rodriguez secretly taped his conversations with her and leaked information to Mirage that she planned to file a lawsuit against Mirage and leaked information about the strategy of her other former attorney, Gregory Smith -- a move Choi claims prompted Mirage to file a lawsuit against her and Trump on April 20, 1999, to discredit her before her suit could be filed.

Mirage Resorts sued archrival Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts Inc., Choi and several other parties in April 1999, alleging Trump used former Mirage workers to gather confidential Mirage information. Mirage also accused Choi of stealing money and conspiring with Trump to steal Mirage customers.

But the Mirage-Trump dispute was settled in February 2000 and all the defendants in that suit have been dropped except for Choi.

Choi later terminated the services of attorneys Smith and Daniel Marks. In a Sep. 18 letter to Smith, Choi said she terminated Smith's services because he allegedly refused to provide her with details of a "6-7 hour private meeting" with Mirage attorneys and other settlement discussions. She said Smith had estimated the value of her case to be about $5 million to $10 million at the time of her initial consultation with him.

Marks said Choi wasn't willing to settle the invasion of privacy lawsuit for under $1 million. Mirage, however, only offered $400,000 in cash to settle the case and wanted "title to any funds that are remaining of the monies (Choi) collected in Korea.