Friday, June 11, 1999 | 9:54 a.m.
A Las Vegas businessman whose son's kidnapping in 1978 led to one of the biggest searches in Nevada history was ordered to pay off nearly $7 million in gambling debts to four casinos.
Sol Sayegh, 54, pleaded guilty in District Court on Wednesday to drawing and passing bad checks in connection with gambling debts he amassed in 1997. He has two years to pay them off or reach a deal with the casinos. If he does, the charges against him will be dismissed.
Otherwise, he could face one to four years in prison. He's due back in court on June 14, 2001, to determine whether he has complied.
Sayegh declined comment on the case Thursday but said through his attorney, Rex Bell, that he had written markers to the casinos and not checks. Under Nevada law, markers are treated as checks and non-payment falls under the bad check law, Bell said.
According to court documents, the money is owed to the Palace Station, Desert Inn, Caesars Palace and Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casinos.
Sayegh's 6-year-old son, Cary, was abducted on Oct. 25, 1978, from a playground at the Albert Einstein Hebrew Day School in Las Vegas. He was never found, despite one of the most intensive searches in Nevada history.
The FBI said at the time it had used helicopters, planes with infrared tracking devices and hypnotists in searching for answers.
His parents received one telephone ransom call about three hours after the abduction, demanding $500,000. No further calls were received.
The family offered a $50,000 reward for his return, placing ads in numerous newspapers. Except for one tearful public plea five days after the kidnapping, the family made no other comment.
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