A former gang leader wants to close the Grand Royal Casino in Wôlinak, near Bécancour. The gambling house, built in 2021 for 11 million on the Abenaki reserve, is operated by a company of Ofer “Josh” Baazov, the brother of David Baazov, former CEO of online gaming giant Amaya.
Former chef Denis Landry asks the Superior Court to cancel the casino management contract, granted for 20 years to the company of Ofer Baazov (who also calls himself Josh), Tribal Gaming Holdings Canada.
According to him, the contract was awarded without legitimate band council approval in March 2020, when the terms of the majority of its members had expired.
His lawsuit, filed in Montreal, targets current chief Michel Bernard, band general manager Dave Bernard – suspended since November 2022 – Tribal Gaming and the Attorney General of Canada.
Denis Landry also denounces the nature of the agreement signed with Baazov’s company, a contract described as “lesionary, exorbitant and abusive” at the expense of the Wôlinak band and “unbalanced in favor of Tribal Gaming”.
Ofer Baazov opened the Grand Royal Casino in March 2022.
The choice of the businessman as a partner raised questions when Le Journal de Montreal revealed the casino project in 2021. Ofer Baazov was with his brother David one of the protagonists of the Amaya affair. These investigations into stock market manipulation mobilized from 2014 to 2019 the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), the Ontario Securities Commission, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as well as the American and British stock market authorities.
The Autorité suspected Ofer Baazov of having disclosed inside information to several investors about Amaya, the online gambling company run by his brother David. The company was then preparing the acquisition of a competitor, which was finally carried out for 4.9 billion dollars in 2014.
In 2016, the AMF found a secret nominee agreement with David in Ofer Baazov’s phone. According to the financial markets watchdog’s statement at the time, the contract stated that Ofer Baazov and their partner Craig Levett actually owned 75% of the shares of Amaya that CEO David Baazov claimed to own, and then 50% to from 2008.
However, these allegations have not been proven in court. No charges were ultimately brought against Ofer Baazov. His brother David and two others have been charged with tipping, conspiracy and securities manipulation, but no one has been convicted. At the end of the trial, the judge criticized the AMF for “routine errors”, “laxity” and an “obvious lack of rigor”.
Ofer Baazov is, however, named in class actions in Canada and the United States, brought against Amaya by investors, which have obtained millions in damages.
In 1996, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission nabbed Ofer Baazov and his Montreal businesses in an investigation called “Project Jackpot,” targeting companies and individuals engaging in telemarketing fraud. In 1997, a federal judge ordered them to pay US$776,977 into a fund to reimburse victims.
In 1993, after a Montreal police investigation, Ofer Baazov was convicted of four counts of cocaine possession and sentenced to 90 days in prison, the Globe and Mail reported in 2015.
In the civil lawsuit filed on Friday, ex-chief Denis Landry claims that Wôlinak was without a legitimate band council when the contract with Baazov’s company was signed in March 2020. At the time, the majority of elected councilors de bande de Wôlinak had completed their mandate 15 months ago.
“The band council did not hold elections as it was required to do in December 2018,” Mr. Landry’s petition states. According to the ex-chief, “for 33 months there was no band council that could legitimately act on behalf of the band.” The contract dating from 2020 is therefore invalid, says his request.
The Band Council, amended since the most recent election in June 2022, suspended General Manager Dave Bernard in November 2022 over a non-casino pay issue.
Denis Landry’s lawyer, Paul-Yvan Martin, asserts that all contracts related to the casino are “contrary to public order, since their object is the operation of a gaming house on the reserve, in contravention of section 201 of the Criminal Code”.
The lawsuit adds that no regulations have been adopted “to authorize such an operation and to guarantee winnings and fairness in the games”.
Ex-Chief Landry says the Abenakis of Wôlinak went into debt of $11 million with Tribal Gaming for the construction of the casino and that the distribution of any profits depends “on the sole discretion of Ofer Baazov”.
Reached by telephone, Chief Michel Bernard considers this prosecution to be “unspeakably stupid”. “They’re jerks of the jar,” he thunders. They will never be able to shut down that casino. He points out that he is a “multiple millionaire.” “I am able to defend myself. »
He assures that the contract with Tribal Gaming was not signed in 2020, but in 2017, by properly elected advisers.
“It’s totally false, retorts Me Paul-Yvan Martin. There is no contract that predates the 2020 one.”
La Presse could not reach Ofer Baazov.
This procedure is part of a long-standing conflict between the Landry and Bernard clans, who have been vying for power in Wôlinak for years.
