Casino with Ties to Abramoff Files for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
A familiar tune is getting a new verse. Another casino if filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy, only this time it isn’t located in Nevada – or even on land.
The Miami Herald is reporting that the parent company of SunCruz Casinos is filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy in federal court and plans to liquidate the entire company.
Oceans Casino Cruises operates offshore gambling cruises in Florida. SunCruz in particular offered sailings out of cities that include Jacksonville, Key Largo, Port Canaveral and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Sailings from those cities were discontinued in mid-December.
The Sun News reports that Oceans Casino Cruises was several months behind on payments to Horry County, South Carolina, out of which the Myrtle Beach casino ships sailed. A sign on an office door at the company read “We will not be sailing until the completion of the transfer of ownership of our company.”
The SunCruz company has an interesting history. The company’s initial owner, Konstaninos “Gus” Boulis, founded the company in 1990, and went on to sell it to corrupt and since-jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff in 2000.
Boulis sold the company to Abramoff for almost $150 million. A legal dispute ensued, which included the strange accusations from one of Abramoff’s business partners that Boulis had attacked him with a pen, to the point that he drew blood.
Abramoff would be convicted of fraud in 2006 in connection with the SunCruz purchase, pleading guilty to charges of conspiring to commit wire fraud and mail fraud. Boulis himself was murdered soon after the sale, when his BMW was forcibly stopped at a Ft. Lauderdale intersection and he was gunned down.
According to court papers, Oceans Casino, which owns SunCruz, has $1-10 million in assets and $50-100 million in liabilities. In Chapter 7, the company would shut down its operations and sell off its assets to pay off any outstanding debt.
Nevada Gold and Casinos Inc. announced recently that they were in discussions to purchase some Oceans Casino’s assets, according to The Sun News.
Nevada Gold has been managing SunCruz on behalf of Oceans Casino since 2008. Nevada Gold CEO Robert Sturges acknowledged the difficulty for employees of the abrupt end of business and cruising, though he said in a statement “We hope to have the opportunity to work with these employees after our acquisition discussions are complete.”
Horry County Councilman Harold Worley took the bankruptcy filing of SunCruz’s parent company as a sign of the recent economic climate, telling The Sun News that many businesses have been down, most markedly those that are based on tourist dollars.
“What’s happening to SunCruz, it’s a sign of the times,” he said. “What I’ve been hearing for the last 60 days is that business has been terrible for the casino boats and, like I say, I’m not surprised at that. I certainly hope they stay,” he continued. “I hope they manage to work through this thing.”
SunCruz owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to the county, as well as $302,000 in fees to the Port Canaveral Port Authority. Horry County also planned on upwards of $2 million in fees from cruising casinos for the year, much of that coming from SunCruz, which it will need to account for if SunCruz doesn’t sail.