Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino’s financiers have been meeting with the tribe’s separate political factions in hopes of getting them to iron out an agreement that will generate enough peace and allow the Coarsegold facility to reopen.
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| picture from Fresno Bee |
Without casino revenues, the tribe will be unable to meet its financial obligations, thus raising the specter — for the second time in three years — of default. Investors who have put more than $250 million into the hotel and casino are growing more nervous with each week the casino remains closed and the tribal infighting continues.
The longer the casino remains closed, the less likely that the development authority will pay its two annual payments on time. The next one is due at the end of March.
Three years years ago, Chukchansi Economic Development Authority was in danger of defaulting on bonds that paid for Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino.
It was about the same time that tribal leaders were facing factional splits — the same problems that led to the closure of the Coarsegold facility last month. But despite the infighting at the time, tribal officials were able to rescue the financial notes in a complex restructuring deal that took months. But the restructuring put the casino and hotel at a financing rate of 9.75% because of previous financial issues that were in large measure due to the recession.
Under the 2012 deal, bondholders with about $303.1 million of debt agreed to the new payment plan. The tribe paid off nearly $40 million in notes with $30 million in cash. The tribe then exchanged $270 million in old notes for $250.4 million in new financing, Standard & Poor’s reported at the time.
Reggie Lewis, who represents the Lewis/Ayala tribal council that was managing the casino when the Tex McDonald group’s security forces took over the gaming office, said the tribe’s bondholders are increasingly concerned about the closure.
“Nobody cares what’s going on as long as they got their money, but they are concerned now, they realize until we get this all settled they will not be having their payments and their interest paid back,” he said.
The tribe’s payments to vendors and bondholders are monitored by a New York state judge, who is ensuring the bondholders’ investment is secure.
Lewis said time is money in this case; the bondholders may have to eventually weigh the risks of demanding a permanent closure and claiming pieces of the hotel and casino, such as slot machines, which would provide only “pennies on the dollar” for their investment.
Read the FULL STORY at the FRESNO BEE
Read more about Chukchansi Corruption and Disenrollment:
Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians
Picayune Rancheria
Chukchansi thuggery
Nancy Ayala
Chukchansi disenrollment
Chukchansi Council Dispute
No, I think in the interest of public safety Chukchansi should stay closed. The fact that the tribe cannot resolve their internal issues is paramount to the reopening.
ReplyDeleteIn case everybody else missed it, the financiers are negotiating with the same failed tribal leaders that caused the shut down in the first place. How can these leaders claim to represent the tribe? How can they be trusted to abide by any agreement? Why would the tribe want them to stay in power knowing that they are not only incompetent, but also dishonest?
ReplyDeleteWhy would the BIA allow any of these former leaders to represent the tribe in a government to government relationship? Why would the NIGC continue to recognize a management contract that names any of those who failed to uphold the contract? Why would the California Gaming Control Commission allow these leaders to operate a casino for their own benefit while tribal members have been completely shut out of the management and oversight of gaming revenues?
The people have to step up. They should call an emergency meeting and notify the BIA. They should elect interim tribal officers and ask the BIA to monitor the election. They should suspend all the faction leaders and bar them from office until the casino is reopened under a new gaming authority. They should conduct an internal audit and find out what has happened to their money.
If the people don't step up and let those in positions of power broker another deal that puts their old tribal leaders back in office then it is their own fault. The same problems will come back to haunt them, and this time all the onlookers will know that it is the people's fault for letting compromised leaders operate their government.
Then they will deserve whatever happens, and there will be no sympathy in Indian Country. Now they have a chance to take back control, reinstate disenrollees, and protect their assets and revenue. Only a group of fools would let the crooks back into the bank after they have already robbed it.
When the tribe straightens out this mess financially and governmental then they should be allowed to reopen. The tribe should not be punished for criminals running the government especially when the B.I.A. and congress would do nothing to help enforce civil and criminal laws.
ReplyDeleteTo Reinstatement: It will be allowed because all those agencies allow it to continue at Pechanga. Money not only talks, it swears too. F#^k you money...
ReplyDeleteF#%k tex, reggie, chance, nancy and nigger vernon. Oh yeah!!
ReplyDeleteIf I have read the history of this tribe right. The money bags who loaned the tribe the money are talking to the very people who said they were could be trusted and that the money would be paid back. The tribe needs to ask the BIA to help them elect a new council. It takes a majority of the tribe to write and sign a letter asking for the BIA to come in and oversee the election process.
ReplyDeleteThat north fork tribe may have to buy it and move on in
ReplyDeleteto the person who talked about vernon being a nigger. but yet your not 100% chukchansi, he has more chukchansi then you.your hanging off the coat tail of your white/mexican ass mama. so who is your daddy? And i know who you are.
ReplyDelete