In a new twist to Indian gaming, the Seminole Tribe of Florida has been accused by their business partner The Cordish Co. of "cutting a secret deal guaranteeing it would win control of the Hard Rock Cafe empire" by promising some of the HRC's top executive members new jobs in the newly formed organization of Seminole Hard Rock Entertainment.  Cordish also contents that the Tribe was working with HRC's current owner the Rank Group located in Great Britain to put the Tribe's bid in as the only bid.

The Cordish Co. has been partnered with the Tribe since 2003 and they negotiated the partnership agreement between HRC and the Tribe, plus they built the Tribe's Hard Rock Casino's in Tampa and Hollywood Florida. They have continued to played a major role in the Tribe's property development.  The company has an agreement with the Seminoles that gives them a percentage of the profits brought in from these properties.

Cordish's suit against the Seminoles and two other entities stems from their perceived exclusion from bidding on the HRC last year.  In 2005 the Cordish Co's attempted approached to the Rank Group to feel out the potential for purchasing the HRC was unsuccessful with Rank turning them away.

Then in 2006 the Rank Group announced that it would be accepting bids on the HRC and once again Cordish went to make a bid. And, again they claim that they were rebuffed by the Rank Group.  While this was transpiring, the president of HRC America Hamish Dodds is being accused of using his influence to convince Rank Group and Merrill Lynch to ignore the bid of Cordish and any others.

The Cordish Co. and and its affiliated contractor Power Plant are suing the Tribe for triple damages based upon a profit projection formula that predicts what the company should profit over the next ten years.

Adding to the suspicion of the transaction is the reports from financial analysts that stated Rank Group could have made at least $100 million more from the deal.  Also, Rank declined to allow Cordish to bid on the HRC during the open bidding process that occured last year.  Rank declined to make a response concerning these allegations.

The accusations and the lawsuits have brought the honeymoon to an end for the Seminoles and Cordish.  Since their partnership began in 2003 the duo have profited more than $1 Billion.  The Tribe and the company have a development contract that extends out 10 to 15 years on several different deals and are projected to earn Cordish $1.5 Billion in profit out of a projected $17 Billion in profit for the Tribe.

In 2005, the Tribe profited $500 million from their operations with $150 million going to Cordish Co. This is 30% of the profits which is the standard amount agreed upon by many Tribes across the country.

In June 2006 the Tribe filed a lawsuit to break its contractual agreements with Cordish.  The Tribe isn't accusing Cordish of wrongdoing in their lawsuit.  They stated that "the [casino] projects have become so financially successful that Cordish's share of the profits is SIMPLY TOO LARGE!."

The Tribe is claiming that they are protected from entering, EVEN KNOWINGLY, into contracts that give too much tribal money to outside entities.

In America, where accountability is a dirty concept, the Tribe has demonstrated theirs thoughts on the matter in a very clear message: We are sovereign, laws don't apply to us.

Everytime I read about abuses and flagrant flaunting of their legal status by a tribe, it makes me car sick.
Isn't it interesting that a Tribe is always willing to give a developer the moon when they need their expertise or the companies money to finance their casino empires, but the very nanosecond that the casino is doing fine on its own, the financier suddenly becomes dead weight to the Tribe?

This is not the first time that a Tribe has dumped the companies that brought them to a profit margin many corporations would be envious of. The same fallout happened at Chukchansi as well when the Tribal Council decided to through out the contract with Cascade Entertainment. This happened on the same day that the casino opened for business.  Of course, it took another six months to finish the break and it cost the Tribe $22 million to settle the contract break, but they have never thought twice about it.  What does this say about Native American when their business loyalties are so weak that they are virutally nonexistent.

I am going to predict that some federal judge sitting at his bench is going to somehow make matters worse for the business world by ruling tribes cannot be sued for any reason, even colusion and potentially racketeering, election rigging and who knows what else. These types of rulings only serve to empower the Tribes to become bad neighors and even worse, more empowered facsist in their governmental structures.

Doesn't anyone remember that this is America and we are all supposed to have the same rights and be subjected equally and impartially to the laws?  What is going on here!