Date: February 12, 2012
URL: http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012302120026
Ref: Interactive timeline on Seeno, Whittemore lawsuits (note
the *two* dogs in front of the Peppermill-casino),
http://www.rgj.com/interactive/article/20120212/NEWS/120212001/
Seeno construction family made mark in Reno
-------------------------------------------
CONCORD, CALIF. - Every wall, shelf and cabinet in Albert Seeno Jr.'s
office holds memorabilia and photographs that tell the story of a
family who arrived in the United States from Italy at the turn of the
century and used muscle, smarts and tenacity to become one of the most
successful real estate developers in Northern California. 'We are
hands-on builders,' said Seeno, 67, as he stood next to rolls of
building plans and maps in an office that overlooks a mechanics shop,
storage units and rows of heavy equipment used in their construction
projects.
Starting with a grandfather named Gaetano who helped rebuild San
Francisco after the 1906 earthquake, the Seeno family has constructed
homes and shopping centers throughout the Bay Area and five other
states since the 1930s and later added hundreds of acres of property
in Northern Nevada to their development plans. 'Seeno Homes: Building
the American Dream since 1938' reads a stamp on a visitor badge at
their Concord offices, where larger-than-life, black-and-white
photographs of Seeno Homes founder Albert Seeno Sr. line the walls
next to elaborate works of Oriental art and a glass case holding
Gaetano's boat-building tools. They started 'in the days when you
could build a house in the Bay Area for $39,000,' Seeno said.
After growing a strong and fast friendship with Reno businessmen Bill
Paganetti and Nat Carasali in the late 1970s, Albert Jr. and his
brother Tom Seeno, now 72, became minority stockholders at the
Peppermill Hotel Casino and then added five other Nevada casinos to
their list of holdings - which added another dimension to their
financial endeavors.
But their most recent Nevada partnership has exploded into a
high-profile, high-stakes legal battle with Harvey Whittemore - one of
Nevada's most powerful and well-known lobbyists, lawyers and political
players - after they claimed in a lawsuit that Whittemore embezzled
and misappropriated funds from their partnership company, Wingfield
Nevada Group, which owns the Red Hawk Resort in Sparks, the Coyote
Springs development near Las Vegas and other businesses. Whittemore
countered days later with his own lawsuit that painted the Seenos as a
family of gangsters who used thugs and threats of violence to force
him to sign over most of his assets. Paganetti called Whittemore's
allegations 'beyond fiction.' He said he has been in business with the
Seenos for 33 years and has never had an argument or cross word with
either brother. 'I have never met people who were more honest, who had
more integrity or who I would rather have on my team than my two
partners,' Paganetti said during a rare interview, held in a
Peppermill conference room. 'These people are the salt of the Earth.
These people are good businessmen. I could live 100 lifetimes and not
have another partnership like this. I trust them with my life. They
are dear, dear friends.'
Troubles at the top
The Seeno family has seen its share of controversies during the years
as their businesses and land-holdings grew. They've been criticized
for allegedly manipulating local politicians in their East Bay
communities and have been named in numerous construction-defect
lawsuits. They also paid a multimillion-dollar judgment in the 1980s
in a case filed by Sparks homeowners who said a Seeno subcontractor
created dust storms while grading a nearby construction site. But
their building ethics were praised in 2001 when a Seeno construction
crew unearthed ancient remains at a West Sacramento site. The Seeno
construction foreman immediately stopped work and contacted a coroner
and an archeologist from the University of California, Davis. The
remains were found to be from a prehistoric American Indian. Seeno
workers were credited for being respectful to the remains.
One of their most serious legal battles came in 2004 when the Nevada
Gaming Control Board filed a 28-count complaint against Seeno Jr. for
violating Nevada gaming licensee laws against committing crimes. Seeno
had pleaded guilty in 2002 to violating the Endangered Species Act at
a project in California where he drained ponds for a development and
killed red-legged frogs. After his plea, Seeno paid fines and
restitution topping $1 million and wrote an apology that was published
in the local newspaper, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Maureen
Bessette, who handled the case. The Gaming Control Board also accused
Seeno of violating gaming license rules by associating with convicted
felons, including one who was a member of the Hells Angels, which they
called 'the largest, richest, most sophisticated and best organized
and most feared outlaw motorcycle gang in the world.'
Coincidentally, Whittemore's sister, Ellen Whittemore, wrote the
Seeno's initial defense brief responding to the gaming commission
complaint, and Las Vegas gaming lawyer Frank Schreck later took over
the case. The issues were resolved and Seeno agreed to pay a $775,000
fine. According to Schreck, the felon in question was Victor Bustos, a
longtime friend of the family who took care of Albert Sr. when he was
dying, and later the Albert Seeno Sr.'s wife. Bustos fell in with some
bad characters in the late 1990s, Schreck said, and was arrested in
1997 on drug charges and was convicted in 1999 of selling
methamphetamine. 'Victor had nothing in his background,' Schreck said.
'When he was arrested, he told the feds everything and when it came
time for him to be sentenced, the prosecutor and the court agreed that
he should receive the shortest mandatory sentence. He was cooperative
and remorseful, and because of his good behavior, was let out to a
halfway house and then got an early parole.'
Initially, the Gaming Control Board prohibited the Seenos from
allowing Bustos on any of their casino properties, but the board has
since lifted that restriction and he now has permission to be on those
premises, Schreck said. As a Nevada gaming licensee, Albert Seeno said
he is continually under the scrutiny of regulators who are charged
with ensuring all license holders comply with Nevada gaming law by
avoiding all activities that discredit the state. Gaming officials
have access to and can take control of all records, including phone
and travel, at any time, he said. Seeno said he has complied and
cooperated with all regulators and regulations 'I'm not aware of any
disciplinary actions involving the Seenos,' said Mark Lipparelli,
chairman of the Gaming Control Board.
The Seeno offices also were raided in 2010 by federal officials, but
no charges were filed as part of that investigation, Seeno said. His
lawyer, Kent Robison, said the investigation was the result of an
investigation into a Bay Area local official, and federal authorities
were collecting documents from everyone who had made political
donations to that official. The Seenos were not accused of wrongdoing
in that case, he said. And in the end, the Whittemore case will be
resolved by a judge, Seeno said. 'In our opinion, all of these issues
will be decided by the judicial system,' Seeno said. 'We are a nation
of laws, and it will all be decided by the facts.'
Building an empire
Albert and Tom Seeno worked under their father for decades until
taking over the California homebuilding empire when Albert Sr. retired
in the 1970s. Seeno Homes expanded into Northern Nevada in the early
1980s, Albert Seeno said, when they acquired hundreds of acres near
McCarran Boulevard and Mae Anne Avenue from a man who claimed he won
the land in a poker game. They soon added homes and shopping centers.
Paganetti said he was 'pouring coffee at a coffee shop' in 1978 or
1979 when he met Albert Seeno through a mutual friend. He and Carasali
had about eight Peppermill restaurants in the Bay Area, and he used to
visit Concord regularly. On his next trip he connected with Albert, he
said. 'And we had chemistry right away,' Paganetti said.
They decided to go in together on a restaurant in Denver, and then set
their sights on a motel owned by the Hill family along South Virginia
Street, Paganetti said. He and Seeno designed a coffee shop to serve
the motel units and locals and later bought up a few more acres and
built more rooms so they could add slot machines. They were one of the
first to offer video poker and soon had 86 slots and four table games,
he said.
Once their first casino, the Peppermill, was up and running, they
bought and remodeled Western Village in Sparks, added the Rainbow in
Henderson and two more properties in Wendover, he said. But in 1995,
while on a trip to Napa with his wife, Paganetti said he made a
discovery that would change the way they operated the Peppermill and
their other casino properties forever. He visited Cache Creek, an
Indian casino in Brooks, Calif., and was stunned by all that it
offered. It had golf, fine dining, entertainment and a spa, as well as
slots, he said. 'I'm in there and thinking holy s--t, and the wheels
are turning. I'd never seen anything like this,' Paganetti said.
'Where else is there a true destination resort? If we don't turn ours
into a destination resort, Reno is going to die.' He said he presented
his ideas to the Seenos and they decided together to reinvest into the
community. 'We had to overcome Reno's reputation as second-tier,' he
said.
They invested more than $400 million into the Peppermill property -
construction handled by Seeno Homes, including adding the Tuscan
facades, pools and restaurants, he said. And soon began making similar
changes to their other resorts, including spending $25 million on a
top-rated concert hall at Wendover, he said. Today, the partnership of
four oversees more than 5,000 employees at six casino properties,
Paganetti said, while he holds majority stock ownership of the
Peppermill. 'We've invested well over $1 billion in this state,'
Paganetti said. 'We've created jobs, people have retired, and we've
done this through mutual trust, honesty and integrity. I have that
trust in the Seenos - unequivocally.'
Albert Seeno added: 'We have a very successful operation in Nevada. We
want Reno to do well as a market. Not just our property, but up the
street and down the street. We want everyone to do well.' Part of
their success, Seeno said, is their commitment to their employees.
'They are our greatest asset,' he said. 'We treat them how we would
want to be treated.' When the economy turned sour and other companies
were reducing staff, Seeno said they sent a letter to all Seeno Homes
employees saying they would not be holding layoffs, reducing salaries
or cutting benefits. Instead, they operated conservatively and treaded
water until things turned around. 'It was an emotional time,' Seeno
said. 'People came in in tears. They were so grateful. We did the
opposite of everybody else.'
The rise and fall of Wingfield
Paganetti said he was the one who introduced the Seenos to Harvey
Whittemore - a meeting that happened during one of Paganetti's family
events. 'I vouched for him at the time,' Paganetti said of Whittemore.
'But I didn't know what I know now. Harvey has a little different
moral compass than the rest of us.'
Tom Seeno was first to join Whittemore in the Wingfield Nevada Group
in 2005, buying in for $30 million. Albert soon followed with a
matching investment, he said. It seemed like a natural fit, Albert
Seeno said. The Wingfield group was developing 1,000 homes in Northern
Nevada and 159,600 at the Coyote Springs site in Southern Nevada. They
had secured highly coveted water rights. 'Where you have water in the
desert, you have life,' he said. 'That interested me and prompted me
to join the group.'
But soon after buying in, Seeno said he began asking questions about
the operation. Not getting answers to his liking, he launched an
investigation that included reviews of 1,000 file boxes, he said. 'It
was clear these businesses were not being run properly,' he said. In
addition to allegedly using Wingfield funds to purchase property and
other goods, Seeno said, Whittemore spent obnoxious amounts of money
on events, banquets and parties. 'So, when I throw a party, we cook up
some ribs and maybe spend $40 or $50, and that includes the barbecue
beans,' Seeno said. 'But this guy was spending $40,000 or $50,000 on
parties. They had the best champagne. I don't know if they were
bathing in it or what. A human being just doesn't need that kind of
extravagance.'
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(c) 2012 Reno Gazette Journal
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