Now Please Pay Attention: Here is another passionate view:
1. Magliarditi and Rebeil have been business associates for more than six years. On Feb. 19, 1997, the Nevada Gaming Commission denied their applications for a casino license. The commission found both men "not of good character, honesty and integrity. " It also found that both lied to investigators for the State Gaming Control Board, and thus each "failed to meet the burden of proving his qualifications and suitability as an officer, director or controlling shareholder of a publicly traded corporation."
2. According to a transcript of testimony before the Gaming Control Board in 1997, investigators for the agency also discovered that Magliarditi, an attorney who previously practiced tax law, under reported his income by about $70,000 in 1994. "The board felt this wasn't an honest mistake, but purposeful underreporting," Steve DuCharme, chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, said in an interview. Magliarditi testified that he owed the IRS an additional $24,000 after he amended his federal tax return to include the previously unreported income.
3. Furthermore Magliarditi admitted that he altered K-1 tax schedules reporting Rebeil's partnership income after they were prepared and signed by the accounting firm of Arthur Andersen LLC. Magliarditi said the adjustments he made, at Rebeil's request, lowered Rebeil's 1994 income tax bill. "I think they were whited out and then the numbers were inserted," Magliarditi testified. He said more than a year passed before the accounting firm received a copy of the altered document.
4. Separately, in December 1998, Magliarditi was fined $4,000, publicly reprimanded and placed on one-year probation by the Nevada State Bar Association. That followed his conditional guilty plea to allegations he had a conflict of interest when he represented clients on both sides of an issue.
5. Control Board investigators also found that Rebeil diverted "millions of dollars" from a homebuilding company in which he was a partner to finance construction of his personal residence. Rebeil allegedly directed subcontractors to overcharge the builder and use the excess payments as credits toward work on his house. Magliarditi testified that there "could possibly be" criminal wrongdoing by Rebeil in connection with the diversion. Frank Schreck, Rebeil's former attorney, testified that at first he believed Rebeil's denials about the skimming. However, after interviewing a concrete subcontractor, he said he became "100 percent" certain that Rebeil was lying when he denied the skimming. At that point, he said, he resigned as his attorney. The Control Board alleged that Magliarditi told its investigators Rebeil's actions were a "complete surprise" to him, even after he'd been alerted to the activity by Rebeil's business partner and by subcontractors. |
