The casino operator Twin River Worldwide Holdings is currently dealing with its most recent controversy after a senior executive was charged with several counts of bribery.
This past Tuesday, the attorney general’s office on Rhode Island stated that the senior executive, Michael Barlow, had a case to answer after being charged with several counts of accepting bribery and a few other casino gaming crimes. He is the senior VP of operation at Twin Rivers, the firm that runs the two casinos on Rhode Island for the state government.
The Rhode Island’s Attorney general, Peter Neronha, stated that a grand jury had deliberated and come up with an indictment on the 12th of December. The charge includes about 30 felony counts against the VP and two others, who include a casino vendor by the name Yehuda Amar and his business associate Jill Feldman.
As it is stated on calvinayre, Amar is charged with making payments to the VP, who started his tenure at Twin River in 2006, to secure a sublease with several food court vendors at the casino properties, as well as to secure multiple contracts.
Both Amar and Barlow have been partners in a number of business ventures, including residential and commercial properties in the state of Connecticut. The deals resulted in the VP incurring a $340000 debt to Amar, to clear this debt, Barlow supposedly steered contracts and vendors to Amar, who significantly benefited from the transactions.
Barlow has had his name searched by the police and is currently facing four counts of receiving bribes, three counts of acquiring property under false pretenses, and two counts of providing incorrect information as well as casino gaming crimes. Barlow was presented in court this past Tuesday and was released on a $20000 bail.
Twin River Issued its statement to the effect that it had cooperated fully with the police in their attempt to unravel the case and noted that the employee involved in this crime is no longer its employee.
In the meantime, Twin River is entangled in a tussle with the Rhode Island over the stated decision to award a 20-year extension to International Gaming Technology on its current contract that will see the firm continue running the state lottery and also supply electronic machines in state casinos for a while longer. Many questions are surrounding this decision by the state, which has led to a probe by the state’s Ethics Commission.
Last October, Twin River Ganged up with IGT’s rivals Scientific Games Corporation, UK National lottery and Intralot on a joint venture to try and snatch state lottery contracts from IGT.
At the beginning of this month, Twin River’s chairperson, John Taylor, stated that he would be leaving the firm after having served in the company for more than a decade. He will be replaced by Soohyung Kim, who also happens to be the founding partner of Standard General L.P, one of the significant investors in Twin River.
