While covering Las Vegas city hall I responded to a tipster who said paychecks bounced for employees at Krave Massive, a highly anticipated downtown nightclub. After taking a closer look I uncovered that not only was the club owner mishandling finances, missing payroll and floating checks; he also used a direct pipeline to the mayor to get a $50,000 grant from the city despite warnings from city staff about problems with the project.
This story looked into the history of a developer who had sought state and local government support for a stadium project.It turned up a long running court case between the stadium promoter and a celebrity hotelier, among other court documents. The online court system showed only an imposingly long list of docket entries. By looking beyond the first layer of documents, however, I found deposition transcripts and exhibits that showed the promoter was a double dealer who lied about having money to invest in the project.
After a watchdog group that had been feuding with the Las Vegas tourism authority turned up an expense report showing a $25,000 donation to a group that honored the authority’s executive director. Given the hostility between the two sides, I decided to take a closer look and examine the issue myself. Receipts, email and other documents acquired through a public records request showed the director spent thousands of dollars wining and dining charity officials in an effort to plan a banquet honoring himself, all funded with public money.
