The check’s not in the mail

By Brendan Buhler (contact)

Sunday, Sept. 9, 2007 | 1:24 a.m.

When Nevada (thoughtfully) provides a searchable list of unclaimed property and you've found out you don't have anything coming to you, there's only one good use for it: snooping on your betters.

And boy, do some of these people leave two, three and sometimes even four-figure checks scattered about like so many quarters in the couch cushions of life.

Oscar B. Goodman, for instance, has yet to pick up a check for $2,157.85, an amount roughly equivalent to 60 1.75-liter bottles of Bombay Sapphire gin. It awaits in Reno, dividends from something called Century Properties Fund XI. Real estate development. Looks complicated.

Also in politics, gaming lobbyist Billy Vassiliadis, known to politicians as "Billy V," has overlooked a $229 check from the defunct telephone company Centel Corp. , which lost his address, and $465.88 from General Electric Mortgage Insurance, which has only his old address.

Sig Rogich, late of Gov. Jim Gibbons' successful if colorful election campaign, is owed an unspecified amount greater than $100 from sale of Cleveland Indians stock.

No longer in politics and now serving time in federal prison is former County Commissioner Dario Herrera, who is owed an unspecified amount greater than $100 by the Las Vegas Justice Court. Perhaps he has bad memories there.

The man who bribed Herrera, fellow federal inmate and former strip club mogul Michael Galardi, hasn't picked up a $339.68 insurance refund check, which was sent to a house formerly owned by Galardi's father, Jack.

Casino giant MGM Mirage hasn't picked up 16 undisclosed amounts (10 over $100) from Quest Diagnostics, a medical testing company.

Speaking of MGM Mirage, its majority shareholder, reclusive billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, has overlooked $129.87 in Turner Broadcasting stock ; Kerkorian Enterprises has missed two insurance refunds worth $286.75 ; and Kerkorian Entertainment hasn't picked up a $115.90 deposit return from Nevada Power. Worth more than $9 billion, Kerkorian may not have missed the money.

Over at the Palms, George Maloof has had to go without an unspecified amount greater than $100 - dividends from Community Bancorp. Gavin Maloof also has one of those Bancorp checks, and a somewhere-over-$100 paycheck from Gepatl LLC. Joe Maloof, meanwhile, is owed $173.70 by the geographically challenged Chicago Title Agency of Nevada.

Over at Station Casinos, family patriarch Frank Fertitta Jr. is owed an unspecified refund under $100 by American Underwriting Managers Agency. Current Station CEO Frank Fertitta III is doing without $150.06 from Johnson & Johnson and a $255.08 refund from State Farm Fire and Casualty, which also gave Station President Lorenzo Fertitta a $56 check. Finally, the Fertitta family as a whole has overlooked a $4.91 checking account at Bank of America.

In the Greenspun family, which owns the Las Vegas Sun, Brian Greenspun has missed out on $59.40 and $87.50, respectively, from the sale of Range Resources Corp. and Triton Energy stock. Brother Danny Greenspun has missed out on $145 from Vision Services Plan and $87 in benefits from Ameritas Life Insurance. The Greenspun Media Group, meanwhile, has not collected $500 from the Venetian Casino Resort.

The man behind the Venetian, Sheldon Adelson, has himself missed out on an unspecified number of checks - all worth under $100 - from the Investment Co. of America.

Next door to the Venetian, meanwhile, it appears that rival mogul Steve Wynn has no unclaimed property.