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Developers of a proposed North Richmond casino filed a billion-dollar federal lawsuit Tuesday against the Berkeley developer of the Point Molate casino project and the world’s largest gambling empire, alleging that they illegally interfered with a pre-existing contract. 

The lawsuit came on the same day that lawyers for the City of Richmond, Berkeley developer James D. Levine and Harrah’s Entertainment defeated a ChevronTexaco attempt to block the City of Richmond’s sale of the Point Molate site for the casino project. 

The federal lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, seeks $200 million in general damages and $400 million each in punitive damages from the two firms. 

The suit charges that Levine’s Upstream Point Molate LLC and Harrah’s Entertainment enticed the Guidiville Rancheria band of Pomo tribespeople to break their casino deal with NGV Ltd., a Florida-based partnership. 

John Knox, a well-connected lawyer hired by the city to negotiate the casino agreement, had hinted at possible legal problems during an Aug. 31 Richmond City Council meeting when he noted that “another operator claims they had a deal with the tribe and are owed $2 million.” 

Knox downplayed the significance of the claim at the time. 

NGV Gaming Ltd. is a Florida limited partnership, with Noram-NGV LLC as the general partnership. Noram LLC is part of the multi-corporate empire which has evolved from North American Sports Management, which began as a sports talent management company. 

The interlocked corporations are the creations of Alan H. Ginsburg of Maitland, Fl., who has emerged as a major player in the Native American gambling boom, with casino ventures spanning the nation from the extreme Southeast to the far Northwest. 

Stephen Calvacca, an Orlando, Fl.-based attorney for NGV Ltd, said his client had an exclusive deal with the Guidivilles, a contract signed in July 2002 for development of a casino project in Solano County. The Florida firm only learned of the Guidiville’s pact with Upstream and Harrah’s to develop a casino in Contra Costa County when the story broke in the papers, he said.  

After their deal with Guidivilles fell through, Noram created a new entity, Noram-Richmond LLC, and inked a pact with the Scott’s Valley Pomo band and purchased a 30-acre site between Parr Boulevard and Richmond Parkway in North Richmond, announcing plans for the Sugar Bowl Casino, a 225,000-square-foot, 2,000-slot Las Vegas-style gambling palace. 

Noram’s venture is much further along in the development process than the Upstream/Harrah’s venture. The Bureau of Indian Affairs has conducted initial public hearings, the first step toward transforming private land into a tribal reservation. 

The San Francisco suit isn’t Noram’s first California legal battle. The firm filed a $6 million fraud action against the Central Valley Mewuk Tribe over the Mewuks’ failure to acquire reservation land for a proposed casino in Tracy. That action was settled out of court in November, 2001. 

The federal lawsuit, filed at 1:53 p.m. Monday, momentarily overshadowed the major legal battle Upstream and Harrah’s had won just hours earlier in a state courtroom. 

In an one-hour hearing in Martinez, Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge David Linn rejected the ChevronTexaco’s contention that the Richmond City Council had to follow state law and first offer the land to other public agencies before selling to a private developer. 

A public Richmond City Council vote on Aug. 31 had shot down the other leg of the oil company’s complaint, which had held that their earlier closed-door vote to extend Upstream’s exclusive negotiating rights had violated the state law. 

Linn said the state Surplus Lands Act—which mandates the offer of surplus land to other agencies—was trumped by the federal base closing statute, which calls for former military bases to be used to replace jobs and economic benefits lost when the military leaves. 

In the interim, the City Council and the casino developers hammered out a new Land Development Agreement (LDA) intended to address some of the concerns raised at the August council meeting. The revised agreement now heads for the Sept. 28 City Council meeting, where members have already signaled by a unanimous vote their intention to sign the deal with Upstream Point Molate LLC, the creation of Berkeley developer James D. Levine. 

Signing the land development agreement is no guarantee that the proposed 3,000-slots casino will ever be built. The Guidiville Band of Pomo tribespeople must first win federal approval designating the land a reservation, and then win federal and state casino authorizations. 

In an e-mail to constituents, Richmond City Councilperson Tom Butt said, “I have been contacted by hundreds of people both pro and con. No clear consensus of community opinion has emerged. . .although even those in favor of the project urge clear and unambiguous language in the agreement to protect existing open space and provide for its maintenance and public access.” 

Another possible stumbling block is the proposal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to award Casino San Pablo exclusive gaming rights for a 35-radius from their site overlooking Interstate 80 to the north of Richmond. 

That pact, currently stalled by Democratic legislators, would end the hopes of would-be developers of five other East Bay casinos now in various stages of the approval process—including two in Richmond, one in Albany and another in Oakland. 

Adding yet another complication is the Sept. 16 lawsuit filed in Alameda County Superior Court by California race track owners who are seeking to overturn the deals Schwarzenegger signed with the five tribes, including the band running the San Pablo cardroom and would-be casino, to grant them the right to build massive Las Vegas-style resorts with exclusive franchises. The tracks want their own slots parlors, and are pushing a constitutional amendment toward that end on the November ballot. 

And then there’s the bill sponsored by Democratic Sen. Diane Feinstein of California currently on hold in Congress, that would void earlier legislation by Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, enabling the Lytton Band of Pomos to avoid the lengthy recognition process to gain a reservation on the Casino San Pablo site. 

Meanwhile, ChevronTexaco is contemplating their next move. With their super-refinery just across the hill from the Point Molate site, the oil company looks at the Point Molate site as a security buffer, a concern shared by Coast Guard Capt. Gerald M. Swanson, Federal Maritime Security Coordinator for Northern California and the region’s ranking representative of the Department of Homeland Security. 

Dean O’Hair, spokesperson for the Richmond refinery, said the oil company is pondering its next move. “We still think that type of development is not consistent with the long-term operations of the refinery,” he said. ›