Business briefs for April 26, 2002

Friday, April 26, 2002 | 10:08 a.m.

Company to spin off subsidiary

The private company that has a two-thirds ownership of publicly traded All-American SportPark Inc. plans to spin off the subsidiary.

Sports Entertainment Enterprises Inc., controlled by Voss Boreta, will continue to own a golf and tennis retail store at Rainbow Boulevard and Sahara Avenue after it spins off All-American, which used to own a sports theme park at Las Vegas Boulevard South and Sunset Road.

Sports Entertainment's shareholders of record May 3 will receive 2.25 million shares of All-American SportPark stock at a conversion rate of 0.27658 All-American shares per share of Sports Entertainment on May 8.

"Shareholders will have direct ownership instead of indirect ownership of the company," Kirk Hartle, a spokesman for Sports Entertainment, said.

All-American, headed by Boreta's son, Ron, presently operates the Callaway Golf Center. Callaway includes a lighted nine-hole golf course with a driving range and instructional center and an affiliated retail center and restaurant.

Agency files suit against body shop

The Nevada Department of Business and Industry sued to stop a Las Vegas auto body shop from operating as a garage without a business license.

Deputy Attorney General Ernest Figueroa, on behalf of the Consumer Affairs division, sued Tom Carsten doing business as Bugshack in Clark County District Court Wednesday.

Besides being accused of failing to register with the state for an auto repair license, Bugshack was accused by the state of using "coercion, duress and intimidation" in several sales transactions.

The state alleges it failed to provide written estimates of repair work to its customers and allegedly denied some of them access to their vehicles until "additional, unauthorized" fees were paid.

Carsten could not be reached for comment on the state's allegations.

Vegas man sues computer maker

A Las Vegas man filed a proposed class action lawsuit against San Jose, Calif.-based Hewlett-Packard Co., alleging it duped consumers into buying digital video disc (DVD) drives for personal computers that didn't have the recording capability it allegedly promised.

Tony White, on behalf of more than 1,000 potential class members, sued Hewlett-Packard in Clark County District Court Thursday. White said the company claimed its rewritable DVD drives would be able to write data on "the less expensive DVD-recordable discs once they were released."

White said the company's "promises began to ring hollow" when DVD-recordable discs were released in April and Hewlett-Packard allegedly admitted the formats weren't compatible.

The company allegedly told buyers of its DVD drives they must buy a $99 upgrade and provide valid proof of purchase for the drives in order to get a new disc drive with DVD-recordable capabilities.

Hewlett-Packard officials could not be reached for comment on White's claims.

LV mortgage firm auditor is replaced

Vestin Group Inc. appointed Ernst & Young as the company's independent auditor Thursday, replacing Grant Thornton effective immediately.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Vestin reported Grant Thornton said there were deficiencies in the design and operation of Vestin's internal controls in audits for the years of 2000 and 2001. Vestin executives said they believe they have improved Vestin's internal control procedures in accordance with Grant Thornton's concerns.

Lance Bradford, president and chief financial officer of Vestin, said the switch of auditors is unrelated to Grant Thornton's assessment of Vestin's internal controls.

"We're moving up," Bradford said. "We always wanted to have one of the large international firms as our auditor. Ernst & Young is No. 1 or No. 2 in the world, and Vestin was finally the right size in growth nationally that Ernst & Young was willing to accept us as a client. Other than that, we had no problems with Grant Thornton."

Las Vegas-based Vestin Group Inc. is a private lender, having facilitated more than $1.1 billion in loans in the last five years. Through its subsidiary Vestin Mortgage, Vestin Group manages two funds, Vestin Fund I, LLC, a $100 million mortgage fund, and Vestin Fund II, LLC, a $500 million mortgage fund.