Stockton blames former president, lawyer, deferential board in failure of

Representatives at Caesars Entertainment, which sold the property to Stockton, said before the closing that they would not be able to the covenant from being enforced.

It blamed vendor Caesars Leisure for saying that sure deed restrictions can be waived; they weren’t, and that triggered the deal to fall by way of.

“And, as a Board of Trustees we need to understand this background so that we can put processes in place that will avoid mistakes of this nature going forward”, added Deininger.

Saatkamp initially denied knowing about a 1988 agreement that prevented the Showboat property from being used as anything other than a casino, but the investigation found “he was well aware of that covenant, albeit satisfied that it ought not preclude the closing”.

Saatkamp, Stockton’s president at the time of the deal, is one of the personalities blamed heavily for the Showboat situation.

“That said, Saatkamp’s leadership style, and haste to obtain approval of the deal, hampered debate and, in this case, resulted in the Board of Trustees, which had already approved the transaction, not learning of critical facts”.

“(Saatkamp), a visionary leader during a period of extraordinary growth and progress at the University, was deeply committed to the purchase of the Showboat, for good and legitimate reasons”, Gibbons investigators wrote.

It launched a report on the debacle that assigned blame to many events, together with a former college president who did not let the board know of a authorized deal-breaker that had not been resolved.

Saatkamp said he acted in the best interest of Stockton and placed blame on an outside lawyer advising him.

“He said he welcomed the opportunity to speak to investigators and was gratified that the accomplishments at Stockton during his tenure were recognized in the report”, but said more blame should be placed on Stockton’s outside counsel. “The very fact is that outdoors authorized counsel reviewed, permitted and beneficial the transaction”.

“I’m deeply disillusioned on the lack of emphasis on the failure of Stockton’s outdoors counsel, which the board and I relied upon, to completely disclose vital authorized issues with the actual property settlement”, Saatkamp stated in a press release. As a result, the review said, trustees did not assess whether this pledge was realistic, “given Caesar’s precarious financial position”. However there additionally was a 1988 authorized covenant among the many Showboat, the Trump Taj Mahal and Resorts casinos requiring that the Showboat by no means be used for something aside from a on line casino.

A spokeswoman for Caesars did not immediately return a request for comment. On Monday, NJBIZ reported that developer Bart Blatstein has signed a purchase agreement to acquire the property, though other details remained unclear as both parties remained tight-lipped.

A board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, during which an “update on the former Showboat property in Atlantic City”, is set to be discussed in a closed session.

Investigators also reference a March 4 email exchange in which Saatkamp informs Hanson of his concerns about the restrictions on Showboat. Caesars Entertainment said everyone involved in the deal knew of the competing deed restrictions and any suggestion it was less than forthright about the sale is false.

The university purchased the shuttered casino in in an attempt to build a campus within Atlantic City’s tourism district, and soon ran into intractable opposition from Trump Entertainment Resorts.