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Tuesday, March 06, 2001
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal COLUMN: John L. Smith Ownership of moon rocks at the center of latest Stupak dispute
Live long enough in Las Vegas, and you'll experience the craziest things. The implosion of the Dunes. The death of Sinatra. A polite wino on Fremont Street. Even casino maverick Bob Stupak in the role of victim. Freaky, I know, but there it is. When I first heard that Stupak, the wild man behind the Stratosphere Tower, Vegas World casino and numerous Gaming Control Board complaints, was involved in an incident of corporate intrigue involving allegations of attempted extortion, I surmised it was another in a long series of tales involving the man who blends fact and fiction the way a dealer shuffles his deck. With Stupak, what you see is rarely what you get. You've heard of the sleight-of-hand magician. He is a sleight-of-life expert. This time Stupak has more than his word to back him up. He also has a surreptitiously recorded audio cassette, now in the hands of Metro investigators. Let's rewind the story and start with Stupak's sale last year of the Thunderbird Hotel & Casino at 1213 S. Las Vegas Blvd. to Douglas DeSilva for $5.35 million. The deal closed escrow in July, and the two appear to have been sparring ever since. Their most pointed disagreement is about the contents of a safe inside the Thunderbird. Among the valuables were authentic moon rocks DeSilva says are worth $5 million -- supposedly the only ones in private hands. Other items included computer disks with more than three million names of Stratosphere customers and $1.4 million in Vegas World gaming chips, the latter of which are worth slightly more than the material on which they're printed. Stupak wants the moon rocks returned. DeSilva says Stupak has moon rocks in his head. Although DeSilva doesn't argue that the rocks once belonged to Stupak, who displayed them outside his Moon Rock Buffet at Vegas World, he does argue that they now belong to him. Beyond a clause in the sales agreement that he says clearly gives him ownership, it's something akin to a legal version of finder's keepers, losers weepers. It's a matter now in litigation. What about the extortion? Stupak has reported to police his belief that agents of DeSilva attempted to extort more than $1 million from him in an effort to get him to pay for the contents of that safe with no questions asked. What sounds like a simple case of civil negotiation is complicated by a cassette, which Stupak secretly recorded, supposedly capturing one Arthur Petrie as a messenger in an act of attempted extortion. The name of local attorney David Winterton, who has hired lawyer Louis Palazzo to handle his interests, also has surfaced in connection with the case, according to Metro. Metro sources confirm that investigators have built a case and have submitted it to the district attorney's office for consideration. In other words, it's not just Stupak blowing smoke. DeSilva, meanwhile, says he's livid -- as if building up business wasn't hard enough on his end of the Strip these days. "It's just a bunch of bull," he roars. "That's what I think it is. I guess he has alleged to them that I have extorted him. I never talked to him on the subject. At this point, I feel they (the rocks) are mine. "I think he's just playing games and using what influence he has to try to force me to do things his way." DeSilva suggests that Stupak is getting Metro and the media to do his dirty work. Interesting thought. But there's a catch. If there's one thing Metro and the media agree on, it's the fact they'd never dream of doing Stupak's bidding. DeSilva adds that he will gladly open his files to prove he holds the legal and contractual high ground, which no doubt the authorities will be happy to hear. Stupak, meanwhile, is uncharacteristically understated. "I feel sympathetic to DeSilva for trying to make this kind of move," he says. DeSilva argues that an attempt to settle a civil case is hardly a criminal act. "I don't know how that's extortion," he says. "If it is, I'm guilty." If the cassette says what investigators contend it does, DeSilva might want to rethink that statement. John L. Smith's column appears Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. E-mail him at Smith@lasvegas.com or call him at 383-0295.
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