MGM Resorts International CEO Jim Murren was to testify last week in New Zealand in a lawsuit he and Full House Resorts President Daniel Lee filed against his former friend, veteran casino executive Glenn Schaeffer, over a seven-figure investment they made in a winery that they said disappeared.
Schaeffer, who was president of Circus Circus Entertainment before it was wrapped into Mandalay Resorts and ultimately sold to MGM, also was founder and CEO of the now-shuttered Fontainebleau Las Vegas casino project. In 2000, he founded the Woollaston Estates winery in New Zealand, later changed to Mahana Estates. Murren and Lee say thy invested millions in the winery. Murren said in the suit he personally invested $1.6 million for what he thought was partner and shareholder status in the winery.
Murren claims he believed his investment was being made in a company called Kiwi Ventures Ltd., which owned the winery operation, based on “trust” and “numerous conversations” with Schaffer, but he and Lee claim Schaeffer “treated the money as his own,” and rendered the shares worthless.
“It was well known to Mr. Schaeffer that I love real estate and I loved the idea of owning real estate here,” said Murren, according to Casino.org. “It was only in 2013 when I started to discover a series of shocking and very disturbing revelations. I would not have invested if I had known the partnership was effectively a shell, or a ruse, and that Glenn would instead keep the money and would also keep his own assets and investments in Woollaston Estates in his own name.
Schaeffer reportedly told the court in September that the case should be thrown out because Lee had threatened his life. “He said if I did not give him back his money that he would bury me in the desert like in the old days, he would destroy my children’s lives, and bankrupt my ex-wife and travel to Omaha to kill my three show dogs. He ended his threats with the words ‘give me my f**** money,” Schaeffer claimed, according to court filings.
Lee denied he threatened Schaeffer’s family or dogs, saying he was simply referring to what might have happened to Schaeffer in the “old days” had he tried to swindle other casino executives.
