Spitting on the grave of not yet buried Paul Simon, are the Rosemont and minority investors who are whining that they only got their investment back with a small percentage of interest.
Here’s a small lesson in capitalism–if you invest in a corrupt enterprise you risk losing your investment. A stunning feature of capitalism is that the state let’s business fails if it is inefficient or it breaks the rules and is penalized.
Emerald executives agreed two years ago to sell the license and give all the profits from the sale to the state after state gaming regulators accused the company of failing to disclose alleged organized crime connections of some Emerald shareholders. Ms. Madigan insisted those shareholders and any Emerald executives accused of wrongdoing should not receive their money back.
If you want to invest in gaming, make sure your partners are clean. If you can’t verify that, invest elsewhere. Risk is an inherent part of any investment. As it is, the investment should be null and void. The company that entered into a contract with the State of Illinois violated the law and should have to forfeit the asset of a gaming license as a penalty. Instead, Lisa Madigan has brokered a deal to let investors essentially break even. While that bargain is not perfect, Madigan was wise to move the process along and avoid costly court battles. However, if investors insist the State pay them back and hold up the sale of the license in court–screw ’em and terminate any right to the license.