SunCruz may lose name

Thursday, June 21, 2001 | 10:55 a.m.

FORT PIERCE, Fla. -- The investors who bought SunCruz Casinos never fully paid for the company and should be barred from using the SunCruz name on their gambling boats, a federal magistrate judge ruled.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Frank Lynch Jr. said a preliminary injunction should be granted against SunCruz partners Adam Kidan, Jack Abramoff and Ben Waldman, requiring them to stop using the company name until the issue is decided at trial.

Lynch said the name belongs to the estate of former owner Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis, since the investors failed to honor the terms of the purchase contract. Lawyers received Lynch's report on Tuesday.

Lynch found that $23 million in equity Kidan and Abramoff said they contributed to the deal was a paper transaction involving $20 million in promissory notes. The money was never paid to Boulis, Lynch found.

A SunCruz spokesman said Wednesday the company disagreed with the court's opinion and would oppose it in court.

The partners bought SunCruz from Boulis for $147 million in September, and the deal soon fell apart. Legal fighting over the sale became bitter and Boulis, a Greek born entrepreneur, was shot to death in Fort Lauderdale Feb. 6. Police call his death a planned hit.

In documents filed in Broward Circuit Court May 25, representatives of the Boulis estate allege that Kidan and his partners "stole Mr. Boulis' SunCruz Casino business with lies, crimes and utter disregard of legal obligations."

Kidan has countered that Boulis laundered money by having cash removed from SunCruz ships late at night. Kidan has said Boulis doctored the company's financial reporting practices.