Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun casino is calling bull on Ottawa Senators’ owner Eugene Melnyk’s claims that someone else may have signed his name on gambling credit markers.
Last week, CBC News reported that James Streeter, a handwriting expert hired as an expert witness by Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment (MGE), concluded that it was “highly probable” that NHL owner Melnyk signed five bank drafts worth a total of $900k to cover gambling debts he ran up at the Mohegan Sun casino over a single weekend in March 2017.
MGE sued Melnyk after his bank refused to honor his drafts and he refused to provide other means of making good on his debts. In October, Melnyk’s attorneys offered a number of possible defense arguments, including that the casino had “induced” Melnyk to keep gambling until he lost big and that some of the signatures on the drafts had a “questionable appearance.”
Court filings have since revealed that Melnyk is disputing the validity of the signatures on three of the drafts worth a total of $600k. But Streeter compared the signatures to those on photocopies of Melnyk’s passport, casino credit application and other documents, after which he came to his ‘highly probable’ conclusion, although he qualified that statement by saying an examination of the original documents would have led to a more definite opinion.
MGE attorneys have accused Melnyk of trying to stall the legal proceedings with “silly” filings, including trying to split the case into five separate cases (one for each marker) and disputing the casino’s assertion for how tall Melnyk stands and how much he weighs.
MGE’s attorneys countered that the height and weight specifics they used (five feet ten inches, 190 pounds) came from Melnyk’s 2004 casino credit application and that their use of the phrase ‘approximately’ would more than cover Melnyk’s insistence that he’s only five foot nine inches and 185 pounds.
Melnyk’s next hearing in New London Superior Court is scheduled for December 17.
