Columnist Jeff German: Cloud still hangs over Mirage Resorts exec

BRUCE Aguilera must feel like a lucky man today.

Earlier this month, the state Gaming Control Board, in a rare 2-1 vote, gave the Mirage Resorts legal counsel permission to serve as secretary-treasurer of the new Bellagio super-resort.

This came after serious allegations were raised that the 20-year industry veteran may have lied to gaming agents investigating irregularities in the credit collection practices of the Mirage hotel-casino in South Korea.

Retiring Chairman Bill Bible and Board Member Brian Harris voted to give Aguilera the benefit of the doubt and find him suitable for licensing. But Steve DuCharme, who succeeds Bible at the end of the week, remained concerned about the gaming executive's conduct. He cast his ballot against Aguilera in one of the few times over the past eight years that he has disagreed with Bible. The Nevada Gaming Commission is set to make the final call on Sept. 24.

Much of the doubt still lingering about Aguilera can be attributed to the activities of Mirage's suspended South Korean marketing agent, Laura Choi, one of the central figures in the debt collection probe.

Earlier this year, Aguilera was accused of misleading the board about Choi's whereabouts after she returned from South Korea, where she was arrested for violating that country's currency transaction laws while collecting Mirage markers.

Aguilera, who has a spotless record in the industry, has denied any wrongdoing.

And the Mirage has vehemently insisted that Choi was given strict orders not to bring back outstanding debts during her Korean trip.

But Choi has put out a different story, one that already has cost the Mirage a $350,000 Gaming Commission fine.

Choi apparently has told any law enforcement officer who'll listen that she went to South Korea specifically to collect money owed the Mirage and that her superiors knew exactly what she was doing.

Her version of what happened has led FBI and U.S. Customs Service agents to conduct their own investigation, which is keeping the story alive beyond Aguilera's licensing at the Bellagio. The federal probe is being spearheaded by the U.S. attorney's Organized Crime Strike Force.

"The feds are doing their work and we're doing ours," Mirage lawyer Stan Hunterton says.

The Mirage work, according to Hunterton, a former Strike Force prosecutor, is to prove without a doubt that Choi is a liar.

Hunterton, it seems, is not alone in challenging Choi's credibility. There are concerns about her veracity even at the Control Board, which sent agents to South Korea to interview her.

Choi's attorney, Louis Palazzo, meanwhile, says he has no idea whether his client, who's back in South Korea, has cooperated with law enforcement authorities.

Palazzo says he's trying to determine the scope of Choi's alleged involvement in the debt collection scam so that he can properly defend her in the federal probe.

In the meantime, yet another intriguing twist to the story has unfolded.

Metro Police intelligence detectives who aren't favorites of Mirage Resorts Chairman Steve Wynn also have gotten involved with Choi.

And that has opened old wounds between Wynn and the police department dating back to the tenure of the late Sheriff John Moran. Intelligence detectives under Moran, you might recall, once caused much embarrassment for longtime Mirage host Charlie Meyerson after it was learned Meyerson had provided complimentary services to several New York underworld figures. Wynn was so enraged at detectives that he filed a lawsuit against the sheriff and the department.

As it turns out, intelligence detectives accompanied gaming agents on their investigative trip to interview Choi in South Korea. A Metro sergeant also was on hand to greet her at Los Angeles International Airport upon her return to the United States on Jan. 29.

Word even has been bandied about that police may have helped federal agents wire up Choi going into a meeting the next day with Aguilera.

The tape of that meeting apparently wasn't strong enough to bounce Aguilera from the casino industry. But it had to give him quite a scare.

Where it all leads is anybody's guess. But Aguilera's luck aside, something tells me we haven't heard the last of this one.

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