They are supposed to reimburse Freetown and Lakeville for the costs of the towns' elections.
Will those towns ever receive $$$$?
There is little information about the Tribe's current 'partner' beyond that they are inadequate, underfunded and have no experience.
Hazy past for casino backer
A casino developer hired by the Wampanoag
Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) touts the company's work on Las Vegas resorts like
MGM, Bellagio and CityCenter, but several national gambling experts say they've
never heard of KMD Consulting or its principals.
The Martha's Vineyard tribe, a latecomer into
the race for an Indian casino in Massachusetts, has announced plans to build a
$300 million facility on the Freetown-Lakeville line. But the tribe is in a
dispute with the state over whether it bargained away its federal gaming rights
in a state land deal in 1987. It's a stalemate that appears headed for federal
court as a July 31 deadline approaches for either the Aquinnah Wampanoag or
Mashpee Wampanoag to reach a compact with Gov. Deval Patrick.
The Aquinnah's choice of a little-known San
Diego company is a strong indication industry giants were unwilling to invest
millions knowing the tribe's gaming license could be tied up in court for years,
said William Eadington, director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and
Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada, Reno.
"Tier one or tier two corporations are going
to look at five- and 10-year legal battles and say it's not going to look too
promising," Eadington said.
'The perfect fit'
Tribal council Chairwoman Cheryl
Andrews-Maltais acknowledged the legal cloud played a role in hiring KMD.
"We needed a partner with the resolve to fight
and work with us when the dust settles, whether it be a modest Class II facility
on Martha's Vineyard or a Class III facility on the mainland," she said. "Some
potential backers were only interested in the mainland. Some potential backers
were not interested in protracted litigation."
She called KMD "the perfect fit."
"We vetted several companies and selected the
company that was the best fit for our goals, style and strategy," she said.
The Aquinnah introduced KMD as their backers
earlier this month and touted the company's ties with Las Vegas and Indian
gaming.
California records show the corporation was
formed in 2008 as KMD Capital Inc. and is based in San Diego. Kevin Dwyer is
listed as the company's resident agent. His partner, Edward Samson, joined the
consulting firm in July after a year out of work, according to his online
profile for the business networking site, LinkedIn.
An Internet search reveals little else. KMD's
own website is offline, Dwyer said.
Online records posted by the Menominee Tribe
of Wisconsin show that KMD has been hired to try to rekindle its casino project
that did not get federal approval.
Calls to the Menominee tribe were referred to
Gary Besaw, chairman of the Menominee Kenosha Gaming Authority, but he did not
return repeated messages seeking comment.
In January, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
reported KMD's partnership with the Menominee and mentioned Dwyer's ties to
Vegas casinos with no specifics about his role.
Yvette Monet, a spokeswoman for MGM Resorts
International, wrote in an email that a check with several of the casino
company's executives yielded no information about Dwyer or KMD.
One MGM executive whose name Dwyer provided as
a reference said he knew him, not as a developer but as a subcontractor on a
casino project MGM built in Detroit.
"He provided the millwork," Scott Gibson
said.
As to what Dwyer would bring to the tribe as
developer, Gibson said he couldn't comment.
A second reference provided by Dwyer declined
to comment on KMD or Dwyer, saying he had to get to a meeting.
Dwyer offered to provide more names and
numbers by email, but had not followed through by press time.
Terms between the tribe and KMD were not
disclosed, but Dwyer said he will pay some of the tribe's legal expenses.
"We weighed the options," he said. "I'm
confident, but nothing is a 100-percent guarantee."
Eadington, one of the country's leading
experts in the commercial casino industry, said he's never heard of KMD, Dwyer
or Samson.
Other experts said the same.
Roger Gros, publisher of Global Gaming
Business Magazine, said he has spoken to Vegas casino executives but none had
any insight into the California company, he said.
The Vegas-based trade publication covers the
casino industry worldwide.
"It doesn't mean they're not reputable," he
said. "We've just never heard of them."
An uphill battle
On Tuesday night at Apponequet Regional High
School, with just one week until a nonbinding vote in Freetown on the $300
million casino proposal, Dwyer and Samson attempted to calm fears about traffic,
crime and as-yet undisclosed financial backers as they pitched hastily crafted
plans.
"We bring the people in who bring the
millions," Dwyer had said during a phone interview hours earlier.
Dwyer has already convinced Perini
Construction Corp., which has built several casino projects, including a recent
addition at Foxwoods in Connecticut, to build the Aquinnah casino if KMD gets
approval and financial backing. A Perini official was in Lakeville
Tuesday to
announce the partnership.
Andrews-Maltais said in her statement she is
"pleased and proud" to have KMD as a partner.
"In this industry, very few companies
worldwide can take on projects of this magnitude without going to Wall Street.
... We all end up at the same place; it's just the course that we choose to get
there," she said.
KMD and the Aquinnah face an uphill
battle.
Clyde Barrow, a professor at the University of
Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Policy Analysis who studies the casino
industry, said investors have likely seen the tremendous head start that the
Mashpee Wampanoag have in getting the Southeastern Massachusetts license and
will be dissuaded from sinking money into the Aquinnah project.
The Mashpee tribe is backed by Arkana Ltd., a
company owned by the same family that owns the Malaysian casino giant Genting
Group, which bankrolled Foxwoods in Connecticut.
The tribe has announced plans for a $500
million casino complex in Taunton, struck an intergovernmental agreement with
the city and is negotiating with Patrick. Finding investors on Wall Street also
may be difficult, Eadington said.
"They may be knocking on back-alley doors," he
said. "They're not going to get mainstream investors to look at it."
According to a search of the Secretary of State's site, KMD is not listed as a lobbyist or consulting firm.
Here's the listing for the Aquinnah Tribe that does NOT include KMD --
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/LobbyistPublicSearch/Summary.aspx?PeriodId=2012&RefId=7020
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The only KMD Consulting firm listed with the corporate division of the Secretary of State is --
| KMD CONSULTING, LLC | 320247049 | 000976882 | 30 ROSSI LN., ASHLAND, MA 01721 USA |
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