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If you can't buy out your partners, sue them.
That is what the Seminole Tribe is trying to do with the Cordish Company, the Baltimore-based developers who bankrolled and built the highly profitable Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casinos in Hollywood and Tampa.
The Seminole Tribe has been trying to break its partnership with the Cordish Company since last year, after the two Hard Rock casinos grossed $275.7 million in less than a year following its 2004 opening.
But when the Cordish Company would not take a buyout, the Seminoles filed a state court suit in May. Since then, legal paper has flown back and forth, including a federal court filing by Cordish, and dueling motions for dismissal.
The Seminoles now claim that the tribe's six-year partnership with Cordish -- which was approved by both sides and the National Indian Gaming Commission -- is ``illegal.''
Under the original agreement, the Cordish Company -- listed in court documents as Power Plant Entertainment, LLC -- gets 30 percent of the Hard Rock's net gaming revenues over 10 years. The Seminoles claim that gives the company, in effect, a ''proprietary interest'' in a business owned and operated by the sovereign nation. That is illegal under NIGC laws.
The 30 percent would total more than $2 billion, according to court documents.
The Seminoles want to break the deal and are seeking ``restitution of monies paid under the illegal agreements.''
''This is money that belongs to the Seminole people, it does not belong in the pockets of a developer who is not entitled to it as a matter of fact and federal and Indian law,'' said Seminole Tribe attorney Alan J. Kluger in an e-mail response.
Attorney Marty Steinberg, who represents the Cordish Company, replied in an e-mail that the Seminole Tribe is trying to cheat them.
''[Cordish] built the Tribe the most profitable casinos in the country and did so when no other major developer would take the risk,'' wrote Steinberg, who said Cordish secured $450 million in loans to build the project and risked $150 million of its own money.
``Because of [Cordish's] expertise and tireless efforts, the Tribe will earn over $500 million this year [from its two casinos].''
Steinberg said that by 2014, the two casinos are expected to gross $17.5 billion.
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