WASHINGTON – A week after U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak asked the federal Interior and Justice departments to put the brakes on the bankruptcy reorganization of Greektown Casino, a lawyer for the investors set to take control from the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, said Stupak’s claims on behalf of the tribe should not be allowed to slow the process.
Allan Brilliant, a New York lawyer representing a group of private equity and hedge funds which will take ownership of the Detroit casino, said in his letter Tuesday that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar should “disregard” Stupak’s request to look into the reorganization, saying the tribe’s “last-minute, baseless attempt to delay such exit (from bankruptcy) is detrimental to all parties that benefit from the revenues generated by the facility.”
Last week, Stupak – a Democrat from Menominee on the Upper Peninsula, where the Sault tribe is based – said Holder and Salazar should look into whether land held in trust by the federal government on behalf of a tribe can be handed over to investors without an act of Congress.
He said some of the land on Beaubien Street in Detroit where Greektown Casino is located was given to the federal government on the tribe’s behalf by private investors.
But in his letter, Brilliant says the tribe never actually had an ownership interest in the property and that the parties – the tribe included, through its chairman – disclaimed any interest in the underlying property when the casino was receiving its license.
And even if the tribe’s current officers argue that there was never any board resolution backing up the chairman’s statement, Brilliant said the tribe never brought up the property ownership issue during the entire bankruptcy proceeding. As part of the Jan. 22 court order, anyone with a stake in the casino – the tribe included – was prohibited from raising any claims that might derail the reorganization, he said.
A spokeswoman for the Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs said Stupak’s initial letter is still being reviewed. Meanwhile, Stupak’s office countered today that the federal government should look into the reorganization despite the investors’ claims.
Brilliant’s letter, he said, “clearly illustrates that there are at least two conflicting stories regarding the status of the property in question, making it all the more important for the departments of Justice and Interior to weigh in on the matter.”
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