It seems that Trump Taj Mahal has been rather cavalier about reporting large transactions and suspicious financial activities to FinCEN. For instance, when customers’ names and Social 
Security numbers didn’t square, Taj management still didn’t pursue the discrepancies. The Taj ‘fessed up to violations of the Bank Secrecy Act‘s “program, reporting and record-keeping requirements,” triggering a $10 million fine, which is the largest in casino history. The naughty activity occurred between 2010 and 2012, so there may be more where that came from. “During a three-month period of examination in 2010, Trump Taj Mahal failed to file 56% of required suspicious activity reports, regulators concluded. During a similar period in 2012, the casino’s reporting failure rate was 44%,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
Since litigating the matter with the Justice Department would probably have triggered the Taj’s financial demise, it has instead agreed to make Uncle Sam one more unsecured creditor in its ongoing bankruptcy. Hey, look on the bright side, Taj: This puts you up there with big boys like Las Vegas Sands, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resorts, one of which has confessed to FinCEN violations and two others are in the hot seat. Some days Carl Icahn must wonder what he’s gotten himself into as godfather to the Taj.
* Glenn Straub‘s bid to buy Revel isn’t dead but it’s doing a convincing interpretation of a corpse. A string of bankruptcy court rulings went against him this week and the possible dissolution of the sale itself could occur next week. Straub’s pleas to Judge Gloria Burns fell 
on deaf ears. “Every party that has appeared before the court today has asked the court not to grant the extension. The contract speaks for itself; the time has expired.”
A Revel attorney professed himself “bitterly disappointed” with Straub: “They’ve had two months to close, and they didn’t do it.” Straub surrogate Stuart Moskowitz fired back, “The attorneys will keep billing. The building will sit there producing nothing.” Straub confronted a Revel attorney and complained, “Why do we want to deal with $15 million in legal fees, power being shut off? What you guys are doing is affecting a lot of people’s lives.” This quickly devolved into a shouting match, with Revel attorney John Cunningham getting in one last jab, saying, “We hope to close with a real buyer who will put their money where their mouth is,” an obvious reference to Straub’s irrepressible verbiage.
In the meantime, gentlemen, ready your bids for Sale Number Three, coming soon.
* New Caesars Entertainment CEO Mark Frissora received remarkably speedy (and at least provisional) approval to take charge of the company’s Atlantic City properties. Frissora will be 
operating at least temporarily without a New Jersey casino license. Frissora was a no-show for the procedure. He’s said to be wanting “to get his bearings a little more” before talking to the media and that could also hold true for regulators.
“We want to see more investment in the Caesars properties, as well as all of the properties on the Boardwalk and in Atlantic City,” New Jersey Casino Control Commission Chairman Matthew Levinson said, rather pointedly. Considering that Caesars is in hock up beyond its ears, hoping for major reinvestment other than the new Harrah’s Resort convention center may be taking optimism a bit far.
