The $1.75 billion US casino buyout by Australian company Crown Ltd has led to an unexpected lawsuit. Crown Ltd. Is owned by the billionaire James Packer, and the lawsuit was filed by his sister, who seeks to keep family trust information private.
In December 2007, Crown set out to buy Cannery Casino Resorts LLC, to acquire three casinos in Nevada, and the Meadows Racetrack and Casino south of Pittsburgh.
Gretel Packer filed a lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court in Wilmington, saying “IT turns out that the approval process in Pennsylvania, but not in Nevada, required licensing applications to be made by the trusts and Gretel Packer as a beneficiary. Gretel Packer does not want to release financial information.
James and Gretel Packer are heirs to a fortune estimated at $5 billion, left by their father who died in 2005. Gretel Packer and the family’s Bahamian trust asked the judge to rule that they are ‘not parties’ to the buyout agreement and that they could withdraw from the licensing process since ‘it imposes no obligations on them’.
According to Gretel Packer, the sellers have suggested in letters that “the true reason for the plaintiffs’ withdrawal from the licensing process [...was...] collusion with Crown as a pretext for reneging on the purchase agreement.”
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