Former UNLV basketball player Jackie Robinson and his associates have been sued in U.S. District Court over failed All Net Arena project on Las Vegas Strip.
A California accountant who is part of a Torrance, California, legal and accounting office has filed a lawsuit against the developer of the defunct All Net Arena project on the north Strip.
Kent Limson, a partner in Tacsis APC, on Tuesday filed a one-count racketeering lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Nevada against former UNLV basketball player Jackie Robinson and All Net Land Development LLC, which had planned to build a basketball arena on land between the Sahara and Fontainebleau Las Vegas.
“At the center of the fraudulent scheme is Robinson, who lured individuals into loaning funds to his entity for the project with the promise of high interest, quick repayment and foolproof lending,” the lawsuit says.
Limson and Tacsis are seeking general and special damages of more than $6.4 million, triple the amount owed on loans issued to Robinson and his affiliated companies as permitted by Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act statutes.
The acreage, formerly the site of the Wet n’ Wild waterpark, is now being developed by LVXP, a team of Las Vegas-based real estate professionals who are planning a multibillion-dollar high-rise resort with an 18,000-seat NBA-ready arena and a 6,000-seat theater.
Robinson tried for years to get started on the All Net project, but finally had to abandon it when the Clark County Commission a year ago refused to extend a deadline on use permits for the project.
In addition to Robinson and All Net Land Development, the lawsuit names Las Vegas-based Dribble Dunk LLC and AGS Assurety LLC; Denver-based law firm Messner Reeves LLP; Nevada residents David Lowden, the land’s owner; Timothy Arellano; Lorin Jacobs, a Henderson doctor; and Utah resident Torben Welch, a Salt Lake City-based partner of Messner Reeves specializing in entertainment and sports law. The complaint also lists up to 100 other unnamed individuals affiliated with All Net.
Robinson and other associates could not be reached for comment late Thursday.
According to the lawsuit, Robinson and his associates received loan proceeds from investors and Robinson personally guaranteed repayment through “performance bonds” issued by AGS. The lawsuit says funds deposited to All Net were transferred to a Dribble Dunk account Robinson controlled.
Robinson ‘at center’
“Robinson would then pay out portions of the funds to Arellano, who never secured a single bond via himself nor AGS, pay out large sums of money to All Net Land Development for the rental and/or rights to purchase the property, pay funds to Welch for his services, pay out monies to Robinson and Robinson’s spouse, and pay out monies to Robinson’s various friends and family as ‘consultant,’ providing them lush ‘consultant fees’ as well as generous Thanksgiving, Christmas and other bonuses, all the while knowing that the All Net Project itself was facing a huge multimillion-dollar deficit and was ready to collapse any day as it had no serious commitment building loans needed to properly fund the project,” the lawsuit says.
Court documents said between August 2014 and December 2019, Robinson and his associates collected an estimated $800 million in short-term loans that were never repaid.
The lawsuit said Jacobs reached out to other doctors to invest in the project and that Lowden, as owner of the land, was invested and would hold the “owner’s box” once the arena was built.
“Plaintiffs received performance bonds as security for the loans, which plaintiffs would later learn through discovery were fraudulent forgeries,” the lawsuit said. “Not a single bond was ever issued.”
Limson and Tacsis, formerly known as Tacsis LLC, had filed a similar lawsuit in February 2020 in U.S. District Court of Central California, but that case was dismissed under jurisdictional grounds. Many of the accusations in the California case were listed in the Nevada filing.
