As promised, Florida developer Glenn Straub has filed an appeal to the final bankruptcy auction of the Revel casino in Atlantic City.
Straub was the losing bidder in a bankruptcy auction of the $2.4 billion property, which eventually went to Brookfield US Holdings LLC, which owns the Hard Rock casino in Las Vegas at the Atlantis Paradise casino in the Bahamas. The company bid $110 million.
“We feel that the auction was improper and we believe that the debtors and the creditors can get a lot more money if it’s a fair auction,” Straub’s attorney Stuart Moskovitz—who represents Straub’s company, Polo North Country Club Inc.—told the Press of Atlantic City.
A U.S. District Court judge to handle the appeal has not been appointed.
Moskovitz said Revel’s attorneys had a conflict of interest during the auction and suppressed bids from Straub. He told the paper that the developer is ready to top Brookfield’s winning bid.
“It was disturbing to us to learn after repeatedly noting that we weren’t being treated fairly and that the other bidder seemed to be getting preference that Brookfield was, in fact, being represented by the same law firm that was conducting the auction,” Moskovitz told the Press.
He said work by that firm, White and Case, was unrelated to the Revel auction. But “they’re still their [Brookfield’s] attorneys,” according to the Press.
Straub also maintains that Revel’s attorneys prevented a fair and open auction by failing to disclose who was bidding on the bankrupt property and by effectively barring Straub from countering Brookfield’s $110 million offer, according to the Press.
