A lawsuit accuses the leaders of a powerful Contra Costa County family of threatening to kill a prominent Nevada lobbyist and friend of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid after a business deal went bad.
After the multimillion-dollar Nevada real estate venture fell apart last year, Harvey Whittemore claims Albert Seeno Jr. and his son Albert III began threatening him and his family, even sending thugs to their homes to force open a safe filled with jewelry and breaking into a house to steal computer equipment while Albert III waited in a getaway car.
The political power broker and his wife are seeking $1.8 billion in damages, claiming the Seeno father and son were involved in racketeering, extortion, grand larceny and threats. No criminal charges were filed, and an attorney for the Seenos on Friday dismissed the allegations.
The Seeno family collectively owns companies worth more than $4 billion, and have a net worth of up to $2 billion, according to Whittemore.
The suit filed in a Nevada federal court Wednesday, alleging fraud among other things, also names Thomas Seeno, Albert Jr.’s brother.
Whittemore, the Las Vegas gaming, alcohol and tobacco lobbyist, alleges that Seeno Jr. threatened to “take down” the state’s “political machine” by going to the FBI with alleged financial misappropriations. In his lawsuit, Whittemore includes a copy of a Seeno employee email to a supervisor expressing fear that he would be asked to commit crimes for the family, after Albert Seeno III called his work cellphone and told him to tell Whittemore: “I am gonna fly up to Reno and break his legs if we don’t get our money.”
The lawsuit also includes tales of rifts and family secrets among the tight-lipped Seenos, including one brother who allegedly threatened to “murder” another.
The Seeno family has sued and been sued countless times. In addition, the FBI raided the company’s Concord headquarters in February 2010, and the company and its leaders have been fined for environmental and gaming violations over the years.
This latest lawsuit comes a week after the Seenos sued Whittemore in Las Vegas, claiming he embezzled and misappropriated tens of millions of dollars from their joint company to pay for a lavish lifestyle and curry favor in the Nevada political scene.
Seeno attorney Kent Robison, of Reno, said Whittemore’s suit was retaliation.
“It is beyond fiction the accusations he’s making, and essentially they are garbage. The act of a desperate man doing desperate things,” Robison said.
The allegations of physical violence are “brand-new nonsense,” Robison said. “He never expressed a word of fear before.”
Before the bust
As the housing market exploded in Nevada in 2004, Thomas Seeno, of Alamo, bought half interest in Wingfield Nevada Group, a conglomeration of business enterprises developed by Whittemore valued then at more than $500 million, according to the suit.
Thomas Seeno asked Whittemore whether his brother, Albert Seeno Jr., a Clayton resident, could buy an interest, the suit alleges, saying Albert Jr. would bring tremendous resources to the deal. “Albert and Tom had been ‘fighting’ for years, and they saw the WNG investment as a way to bring the brothers back together,” according to the suit.
Albert Jr. bought a one-third interest in February 2007, leaving all three men with equal ownership. By then, the company was worth $500 million to $1 billion.
As part of the agreement, the Whittemores over the years borrowed about $20 million from Thomas Seeno, the suit alleges.
The Seenos would come after that money.
The collapse
As the housing market dried up like the Las Vegas desert, the relationship between Whittemore and the Seeno brothers soured.
In February 2009, Whittemore claims Albert Jr. and Thomas asked for his assistance because the family owed the IRS more than $500 million in income taxes.
Whittemore, an attorney, employed a tax strategy that allowed the Seenos to defer their taxes, negotiate new credit lines and increase their cash flow, he claimed in the suit.
In August 2010, with the development market crumbling, Albert Jr. became disgruntled and accused Whittemore of embezzlement, fraud and other criminal activity. They met in the family’s Peppermill Hotel and Casino.
“At the conclusion of these threats, (Seeno Jr.) reminded Mr. Whittemore of the threats he had made about murdering his own brother, Thomas Seeno, with his own bare hands and then threatened Mr. Whittemore’s life and the lives of his entire family if he did not do as he was expressly instructed by Albert Seeno Jr.,” according to the suit.
The Seenos’ attorney paints a different story, saying Whittemore told the Seenos he was broke and could not make his payments toward the company’s growing debt. The Seenos audited the books and found that Whittemore had embezzled funds, according to the attorney.
“They found millions of dollars pulled out for personal and political uses,” Robison said.
In one instance, Robison said they found evidence Whittemore used more than $200,000 to help pay for a party featuring former President Bill Clinton. The Seenos went to the gaming control board, FBI, Reno police and state bar association with allegations of embezzlement, Robison said.
Whittemore’s attorney declined to comment because of the litigation.
The Seeno way?
Whittemore said he also went to Reno police to report the threats he alleges in his lawsuit.
A Reno police spokesman did not return a call seeking a comment.
Whittemore said that more than five times between September 2010 and January 2011 the Seenos directed employees to go to his homes to intimidate him and his family into giving them assets — including jewelry, art, furs, wine and cars — in lieu of debt payments. He estimates he lost $5 million to $10 million in assets.
Former Wingfield employee Brad Mamer, who emailed his supervisor in September that he would not commit any crimes for the Seenos, said Albert III, of Pittsburg, once brought him into his office and told him ” … We (expletive) everybody — that’s the Seeno way,” according to Whittemore.
Robison said Mamer was a “disgruntled former employee” and that assets were transferred to the Seenos from Whittemore voluntarily, to pay back the debt.
Staff writer Lisa Vorderbrueggen contributed to this report. Contact Matthias Gafni at 925-952-5026. Follow him at Twitter.com/mgafni.
ONLINE
To view Harvey Whittemore’s lawsuit against the Seeno’s and the Seeno’s suit against the lobbyist, visit ContraCostaTimes.com
A look inside the $1.8 billion lawsuit
Below are excerpts from the lawsuit brought against the Seenos. To read the full lawsuit, go to www.contracostatimes.com/extra.
