Las Vegas businessman Edward Mike Davis is fighting back in a lawsuit claiming he defrauded the founder of MGM Resorts International in a stock deal.
Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian’s investment firm Tracinda Corp. of Beverly Hills, Calif., filed suit Dec. 6 in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas against Davis.
The suit claimed Davis had undisclosed conflicts and misled Kerkorian in order to induce him into investing $684 million for a 35 percent stake in Delta Petroleum Corp. of Denver.
That was a disastrous investment for Kerkorian and Tracinda, as Delta Petroleum has since filed for bankruptcy.
In responding to Tracinda’s lawsuit late last month, attorneys for Davis, known in the oil industry as "Tiger" Mike Davis, flooded the court with briefs that sought dismissal of the lawsuit, or at least an order that it be toned down, and that one of Tracinda’s law firms in the case be disqualified because of alleged conflicts of interest.
The dismissal motion said Tracinda, "one of America’s largest and most sophisticated equity investment companies," had failed to show Davis made false representations or that "its reliance on defendant’s purported misrepresentations was reasonable or justified."
The motion also said Tracinda had failed to show Davis had a fiduciary relationship with Tracinda requiring him to disclose his business dealings with Delta.
"Plaintiff’s complaint discloses plaintiff’s real reason in bringing this suit: the shares of Delta collapsed due to a 'global decline of commodity prices.' Apparently unable to cope with the loss resulting from the worldwide recession, plaintiff seeks to pass the buck and blame the defendant," Davis’ attorneys added in their reply.
They also sought disqualification of one of Tracinda’s law firms in the case, Glaser Weil Fink Jacobs Howard Avchen & Shapiro LLP, which has offices in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
They said an attorney with that firm had advised Tracinda on the Delta stock deal and that the firm has a financial stake in the litigation as it was supposed to share in Tracinda’s profits from the stock investment.
"Nevada law and the Rules of Professional Conduct prohibit lawyers and law firms from partaking in such activities and playing such dual rules," Davis’ filing said. "Plaintiff’s law firm is trapped in an overwhelming and unacceptable conflict of interest."
The attorney, Terry Christensen, was a partner at the law firm Christensen, Glaser, Fink, Jacobs, Weil & Shapiro LLP — which changed its name and dropped the word “Christensen” after Christensen was sentenced to federal prison after his 2008 conviction in the wiretapping of Kerkorian’s ex-wife in a child support case.
"Mr. Christensen’s counsel for his federal criminal conviction was in fact, Patricia Glaser, his law partner and current counsel for Tracinda in this action. Removing Mr. Christensen from plaintiff’s law firm does not rectify the shocking conflicts of interest concerning plaintiff’s law firm," Davis’ filing said.
Davis’ legal team also asked the Las Vegas court to strike from the Tracinda lawsuit "incredibly improper and scandalous allegations" about the marriage of Davis in 1959.
The Tracinda suit noted that as a 28-year-old, Davis was the chauffeur to Helen Bonfils, the 69-year-old owner of the Denver Post; and married Bonfils after the death of her husband.
Tracinda said in its lawsuit that Bonfils helped Davis break into the oil industry and that after the couple divorced, “Davis used the money he received from his divorce settlement in part to expand his work in the oil industry.”
"Even a non-attorney can identify the scandalous and improper nature of the allegations in dispute," said the Davis motion asking that the details of his marriage be stricken from Tracinda’s lawsuit.
Tracinda has not yet responded to the Davis filings.
Davis is represented by the law firm Foley & Lardner of San Francisco and by Moran Law Firm LLC of Las Vegas.