Business briefs for June 19, 2001

Tuesday, June 19, 2001 | 11:06 a.m.

Time-share developer buys Carriage House intervals

A Phoenix time-share developer and operator has acquired 600 one-week intervals in Las Vegas at the Carriage House hotel, which already operates as a time-share facility.

ILX Resorts Inc., which operates six resorts in Arizona, one in Indiana, one in Colorado and is nearing completion of a property in San Carlos, Mexico, is acquiring the units for $900,000.

ILX Resorts Chief Executive Officer Joseph Martori was in Las Vegas Monday to complete the deal.

The units will be marketed under ILX Resorts' Premiere Vacation Club branding with existing club members gaining access to the Las Vegas units.

The Carriage House is a 155-room, nine-floor property at Harmon Avenue near the Las Vegas Strip.

Amy Lowell, general manager of the Carriage House, said the property has about 7,200 unit owners and that ILX Resorts is acquiring existing unsold time-share weeks.

In a separate matter, ILX Resorts still plans to develop a 100-unit time-share resort on 44 acres at Paradise Road and Tropicana Avenue. Martori said the company has received approvals from city and airport officials to develop the land, but the Federal Aviation Administration has raised some issues about whether time-share units qualify as a use for the land.

The FAA approved a grant to McCarran International Airport to acquire land surrounding the airport, but placed stipulations on uses permitted on the property.

Distributors sue for compensation from closed firm

Five former distributors of Equinox International Corp. of Las Vegas, which was shut down last year as an illegal pyramid scheme, have sued to expedite their compensation from a settlement reached last April between the company and the Federal Trade Commission.

Equinox, founded by Bill Gouldd, was ordered into receivership by U.S. District Court Judge Johnnie Rawlinson on April 20. The move followed a settlement between the company and the Federal Trade Commission midway through a trial to determine if the business was an illegal pyramid scheme.

The distributors, who filed a class action lawsuit against Gouldd and Equinox in January 1997, noted than more a year has elapsed since the settlement was reached but the court-appointed receiver Robb Evans has given no indication as to when he proposes to end the receivership so that the class members are compensated.

The distributors also opposed Evans' request for more time to negotiate certain issues involving the company with the Internal Revenue Service, saying such issues will "benefit from an airing in court."

They said they also do not know the appraised value of some of Equinox's largest assets that are yet to be liquidated. These include a 17,500-square-foot residence in Boca Raton, Fla., a 116-foot yacht, an 89,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in Texas, art, jewelry and four non-liquid investments.

Two-door aircraft boarding tested

Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, the busiest carrier serving McCarran International Airport, is experimenting with a jet boarding bridge that loads and unloads passengers from its front and rear doors.

Southwest, which has 164 daily flights in Las Vegas and carries about 33 percent of the passengers that pass through McCarran, is testing the FMT Dual Board Bridge at its Love Field headquarters in Dallas and in Austin, Texas.

Southwest has been offering suggestions to the device's manufacturer, Fabrikmonteringin Trelleborg AB of Sweden. The bridge, which uses laser technology to align to the doors of a Boeing 737 jet and carries passengers over the wing of a parked jet, can deplane a fully loaded plane in three to four minutes.

A Southwest spokeswoman said the bridge is still being tested and it hasn't been determined whether it would be deployed in Las Vegas.

One of Southwest's chief competitors in the short-haul market, Shuttle by United, also has experimented with dual-door passenger loading and unloading.

LV company sued by State Bar

The State Bar of Nevada sued to stop a Las Vegas woman and her alleged law firm from practicing law in Nevada allegedly without a license.

The bar association sued Nancy Nash, president and secretary of Nash Financial Management Ltd. and guarantor of another entity, Nancy Nash Inc. of Las Vegas, in Clark County District Court, alleging they offered legal advice on the validity of trusts and wills, probate issues and estate law without a state license and collected fees for such services.

Nash, who allegedly owns and operates an alleged law firm at 3216 W. Charleston Blvd., suite B, was accused of advertising as a "certified elder planner and senior advocate providing sound solutions to seniors for over 25 years" in the telephone directory under the heading, "Attorneys - Wills, Trusts & Estate Planning."

Nash was also charged with failing to clearly indicate in seminars and printed materials and at the onset of each consultation that she isn't a licensed attorney.

The bar association said such practices are "illegal and contrary to public interest" because the fundamental legal rights of Nevada citizens, including the elderly and those in need of competent counsel, are being dealt with by persons who are subject to neither the Rules of the Supreme Court of the State of Nevada nor the regulatory disciplinary proceedings of the State Bar."

The Nevada Attorney General's office earlier sued Nash Financial Management to force the company to comply with a subpoena brought in January by the Securities Division of the Nevada Secretary of State's office.

The subpoena demands the production of a wide variety of company documents, as part of an investigation conducted by the securities division of Nash Financial for possible securities violations.

Nash could not be reached for comment on the allegations.