Hypnotist, sued by Venetian, sues customer

Grace Leong

Thursday, Aug. 2, 2001 | 10:57 a.m.

Las Vegas hypnotist and financial adviser Marshall Sylver was accused by the Venetian hotel-casino of allegedly failing to pay $201,000 in gaming debts after a check he allegedly issued bounced.

Sylver, whom the Venetian said delivered a $205,000 credit marker on Jan. 28, 2000, paid only $4,000 of his debt but allegedly refused to pay the rest after the credit marker was allegedly dishonored by his bank.

The Venetian said in a lawsuit it seeks to recover damages from Sylver, whom it said agreed on June 18, 1999, to pay the costs of collection, attorneys' fees and interest at a maximum rate of 12 percent a year should his credit account become delinquent.

But Sylver disputed the charges.

"There's some confusion over the financing of the marker. The Venetian has been receiving payments on a regular basis. I've been going through a divorce since January 2000. That's why the marker wasn't paid off immediately, because in a divorce, there's an immediate lock on funds on both sides."

Meanwhile, Sylver, owner of Sylver Enterprises, a Las Vegas company that conducts self-help financial management seminars, sued to stop one of his former clients from allegedly defaming him and trespassing on his property.

Sylver, who said he had performed as a hypnotist at the Sahara and Stratosphere hotel-casinos, sued Sean Roach, a Las Vegas man, in Clark County District Court, alleging he "engaged in a malicious campaign of lies, stalking and personal attacks to cause him emotional distress."

Roach was also accused of persuading Sylver's customers to not patronize his seminars and publicly and repeatedly accused him of "professional misconduct, personal dishonesty and immoral sexual behavior."

"Roach is an individual who signed up with Sylver. But he didn't believe that he benefited from the self-help financial program and has been on a personal vendetta since," said Tony Sgro, Sylver's attorney.

"Roach didn't attend meetings, didn't do what he was instructed to do, and then complained he wasn't getting results. He insisted on refund but he didn't pay any of the seminar fee, which is about $5,000," he said. "There's a company that provides financing for clients who want to join Sylver's seminars but can't pay up immediately. Roach signed an agreement with this company and wanted to break it after he didn't get results."

Sylver said he had been planning his lawsuit against Roach for about a month and that Friday's lawsuit wasn't a pre-emptive strike against a media report about his company aired earlier this week on Channel 8-KLAS TV.

"We learned on Friday that there was going to be some negative press about Sylver. So we made a video tape of about 50 people we had at a seminar giving their honest opinion about the company as they left," Sgro said.

Roach could not be reached for comment on the allegations.