Court date set for man with $1 million gambling debt

By Tiffany Gibson

Friday, Oct. 9, 2009 | 11:29 a.m.

The case of a software designer accused of failing to pay $1 million in gambling debts to a Las Vegas casino is moving forward with a status check scheduled for later this month.

Dennis Montgomery, 56, is charged with obtaining money under false pretenses and theft after failing to repay Caesars Palace for nine checks he wrote in September 2008. The checks varied in amounts from $10,000 to $250,000.

He was arrested in Southern California on a felony warrant from Clark County in July. Montgomery posted bail at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside, Calif., and is no longer in custody.

Justice of the Peace Nancy Oesterle set the status check for 8 a.m. Oct. 30 and requested that Montgomery be present. He did not appear in court today, but his lawyer, Richard Shonfeld, appeared on his behalf.

Oesterle set the date after prosecutor Chris Owens denied a payment plan Schonfeld proposed.

“We made a very reasonable proposal,” Schonfeld said. “I guess the D.A. wants time to contemplate.”

Schonfeld had proposed a monthly payment plan with staggered increases. It would start at $50,000 a month, then increase to $75,000 and finally in March, to $100,000 monthly until the debt was repaid.

In 2006, Montgomery was involved in a public dispute with his former employer, eTreppid Technologies owner Warren Trepp. The dispute came about after Montgomery left the company. Both men sued each other over secretive software that was said to be worth millions. They later reached a legal settlement.

Montgomery also had alleged that Gov. Jim Gibbons received gifts and money -- including casino chips and a Caribbean cruise -- from Trepp to secure defense contracts while Gibbons was a congressman. Both Gibbons and Trepp denied these allegations.

The FBI investigated Gibbons and cleared him of all wrongdoing in November 2008.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.