RICO Suit Over Failed Las Vegas NBA Arena Tossed on Technicality

A federal judge on Monday rejected a $6.4 million RICO lawsuit against a famously failed Las Vegas basketball arena and luxury resort because it failed to meet a legal deadline.

Last December, Kent Limson and TACSIS APC, the California law and accounting firm in which he serves as a partner, filed a racketeering lawsuit against Jackie Robinson and his All Net Land Development LLC. The suit claimed the real-estate developer collected investments and loans to build the $5 billion NBA All Net Resort and Arena, which he knew would never materialize.

According to Limson and TACSIS, they issued seven short-term loans to All Net in 2018 and 2019. Four had defaulted by the issuance of the fifth, giving Limson a one-tenth of 1% ownership interest in the project. In addition, the surety bonds guaranteeing the loans were either forged or fraudulent, their lawsuit claimed.

Not so Suave on the RICO

However, the deadline to file under the RICO Act is four years, and US District Chief Judge Andrew Gordon found that the plaintiffs waited longer than that to file after learning that the defendants allegedly failed to repay their loans.

Judge Gordon based his finding on a similar lawsuit the plaintiffs filed in LA Superior Court in November 2020.

However, the plaintiffs argued that they didn’t discover the fraudulent surety bonds until during that trial’s discovery process. That would make it a new injury, they claimed, with a new legal deadline. In addition, the loss of Limson’s ownership, which occurred when the Clark County Commission shuttered the project in November 2023, was also a new injury.

Judge Gordon was not convinced, since the LA Superior Court complaint sought damages for the same loans and failed surety bonds. However, he left the door open to new evidence that could change his mind.

“Although it seems unlikely that additional facts could cure the statute of limitations issue, I grant the plaintiffs leave to amend their complaint if they can plead additional facts to support a RICO claim within the limitation period,” he wrote.

If a new suit isn’t filed by Sept. 2, the case will automatically close.