A court in the United States has turned down a bid to dismiss a complaint made by a unit of casino management firm Global Gaming Asset Management LLC (GGAM) against certain parties, including Philippine entrepreneur Enrique Razon.
That is according to a Wednesday filing to the Philippine Stock Exchange by Mr Razon’s Bloomberry Resorts Corp, the backer of the Solaire Resort and Casino in the Philippine capital Manila.
However, the court in New York did dismiss the GGAM side’s complaint against some other named defendants described as real estate companies and oil and gas companies in the U.S. associated with Mr Razon.
The overall case relates to the termination of a management services agreement for the casino at Solaire that had existed between several Bloomberry subsidiaries on one side, and entities linked to GGAM on the other side. The latter group has links to former casino executive William Weidner.
Solaire opened in March 2013. According to the Bloomberry group’s 2015 annual report, its subsidiaries terminated in September 2013 the agreement with Global Gaming Philippines LLC, alleging “material breach” and “failure of discussions”. Global Gaming Philippines claimed the agreement had been wrongfully terminated.
In a filing in March last year, Bloomberry Resorts said Mr Razon and some of the group’s units were being sued in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York.
That filing had said Global Gaming Philippines was seeking to confirm a US$296.6-million award made in 2019 by a Singapore-based arbitration tribunal in favour of Global Gaming Philippines and GGAM Netherlands BV, and against Bloomberry Resorts and Hotels Inc, and Sureste Properties Inc.
In October, Bloomberry said the Singapore Court of Appeal had dismissed an appeal from two of its units regarding the case against Global Gaming Philippines.
According to Wednesday’s announcement by Bloomberry Resorts, the update from the New York court “means that the parties GGAM (as plaintiff) and Sureste Properties, Bloomberry Resorts and Hotels, and Mr Razon (as defendants) will have to present their evidence to prove their respective claims or defences in this case for enforcement of an arbitral award in the New York court”.
Bloomberry had previously said that in the event that the GGAM side “will file an action to enforce” the US$296.6-million award in the Philippines, where the assets and business of its units are located, Bloomberry Resorts’ subsidiaries “will oppose such enforcement based on applicable Philippine law.”
