Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Leon Black and Apollo's Pursuit of Sands Corp

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Leon Black and Apollo's Pursuit of Sands Corp · The Vault: The Epstein Files

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Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the Epstein Chronicles.
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On tonight's episode, we're going to change pace a little
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bit here and we're going to check in on the
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Leon Black situation and the move that they're trying to make,
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meaning Apollo Global into Las Vegas. But before we do that,
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there is a bit of breaking news and it has
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to do with Apollo Global and the battle royale that
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is going on between Josh Harris and Leon Black. Now
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we know that Leon Black and his legal team were
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claiming that Miss Kanieva and her legal team we're engaging
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in a rico criminal conspiracy basically to extort Leon Black. Well,
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now Leon Black's lawyers they've dropped those charges and they're
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not pursuing the racketeering allegations against Wigdor anymore. And the
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attorneys that were representing him a manual at Quinn Emmanuel,
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they're leaving the case as well. Now Wigdor isn't letting
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their foot off the gas, though Wigdor is still looking
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to try and get them sanctioned. So there is a
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lot going on here and it just leads us right
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into the article we're going to dig into about Apollo
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Global and them trying to, you know, make their way
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back into Las Vegas. We know that they had a
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bit going on with Caesars for a while, didn't work
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out so well, and now they're trying to get the sands.
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So let's take a look at what author Dana Gentry
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has to say over at the Nevada current as Apollo
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makes license bid for sans founder alleges conspiracy against co founder.
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When Apollo Global Management appears before the Nevada Gaming Control
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Board Wednesday, it's bid the purchase the operations of the
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Venetian and Palazzo on the Las Vegas Strip. It will
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do so without Leon Black and Joshua Harris, the top
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executives who stood before regulators when the company won a
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license for a leveraged buyout of Caesar's Entertainment in two
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thousand and eight, and it failed miserably for them. Caesar's
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has never been the same since Apollo Global swooped in.
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And the galling part of all of this is they
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bought it in two thousand and eight during the whole
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entire debacle. So once again the vultures were at the corpse.
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And that's exactly what Apollo Global is was and always
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will be. Look, I get it. That's how you have
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to conduct yourself in the financial market. That's how you
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have to conduct yourself if you're going to be the
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big dog on the block of investment firms. Doesn't mean
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I have to like it, and in fact I think
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it's gross. It's just not I don't know. Look, hey,
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I'm not going to tell anybody else how to make right.
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But there has to be regulations, there has to be stipulations,
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and there has to be penalties when you're out of line.
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And we know that Apollo Global most certainly has been
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out of line here. Obviously they let Leon Black be
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the quote unquote fall guy, meaning take most of the heat.
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But you mean to tell me that people at Apollo
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Global had no idea. All of these smartest men in
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the room, all of these too big to fail mfors,
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had no idea. Huh, Well, maybe they aren't as smart
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as they wanted us to believe. Then it's one or
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the other. Black, Apollo Global Management's founder and still its
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largest shareholder, stepped down last year after thirty years as
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chairman when news broke that he paid convicted sex offender
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pedophile Jeffrey Epstein one hundred and sixty five million dollars
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for financial advice. Now, look, we know that that's a
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lot of advice. U huh. How much advice does one
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hundred and fifty eight million buy you a whole bunch?
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Now it says here one hundred and sixty five million.
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Perhaps the author of this article has some information. I don't.
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I thought it was a buck fifty eight. But we're
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talking about peanuts at that point, right, be it one
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hundred and sixty five, one hundred and fifty eight million.
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What are you giving him that kind of money for?
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I mean financial advice? Really, your head honcho down here
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at Apollo Global, with all of the big shots working
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for you, taking their orders from you, doing whatever it
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is you tell them to do, and you're out here
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getting money from Jeffrey Epstein, I mean, giving Jeffrey Epstein
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money for his advice, for his direction in life? What
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is this the Boys and Girls Club? And you needed
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a sponsor? I mean, I don't even understand what's going
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on here. Not if you're if you're following the quote
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unquote official narrative here and you don't think it's funky,
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then I don't know what to tell you. But one
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hundred and sixty five million dollars for advice. I've never
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heard of anything like that. Black is also under investigation
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by the Manhattan District Attorney for an alleged sexual assault
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at Manhattan at Epstein's Manhattan home, according to a news
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report citing sources. So again we're talking about the Las
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Vegas Gaming Commission, the Las Vegas Gaming Board. Now, I
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worked for a sportsbook for six years and we're fall
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right under the umbrella of being regulated by the Gaming Commission.
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And they are so ridiculous with some of the regulations
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that I can't even begin to tell you how annoying
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it is. One time I was on vacation and I
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had one of my employees. Some guy hit a horse race, right,
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and if it's over a certain threshold, you have to
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collect a w nine, get their license, get them to
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sign stuff. It's a whole thing for tax purposes. Anyway,
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the employee didn't get all of the documentation signed, so
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at night, all of those documents would go into an
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envelope and then it would be sent to the auditing department,
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and if the auditing department found something amiss, you would
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get back a notice saying that hey, look, this is wrong,
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you miss this whatever, Well, it was such a big
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deal that this employee missed this signature. Meanwhile, while I'm
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on vacation, mind you, and I'm getting yelled at from
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three thousand miles away. It was such a big deal
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that they wanted to fire this person, and I was
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very adamant that that was not okay with me, especially
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considering that our company had been slapped with a thirty
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million dollar fine for its own missteps. Right, so how
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about a little equity here. You're gonna get rid of
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this person who has a family job, I mean, needs
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this job to feed the people that rely on him,
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and you're going to fire them for obviously a mistake.
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And we were able to chase the paperwork down and
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the player actually was somebody who came to the place
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a lot, so he was gracious enough to sign the paperwork.
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But they were willing to just fire this dude because
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the gaming control board, and they could have fought that. Right. Meanwhile,
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the gaming control boards over here, la la la la la,
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hanging out who knows what, down at the Las Vegas
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National Golf Course, probably getting ready to give Leon Black
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and Company a gaming license again in Las Vegas. In
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a lawsuit filed last week, Black alleges Harris, who he
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once named co founder, is out to destroy him over
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Black's choice of his successor, Mark Rowan. Now, look, there
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is some truth to that. Probably. We know how people
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are human nature in general, right, and you can amplify
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that to the maximum with people like Josh Josh Harris.
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This is not a guy who is used to being
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told no or losing in any capacity. And he gets
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passed up for this big ass role, you know, he's
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gonna have some animosity built up, at least you would
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think so. But to this level where they're alleging that
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he's in bed with Leon Black's accuser and funding it
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and it's a whole rico case. I mean, come on,
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that is just absolutely ridiculous and I'll need to see
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a lot of evidence to believe something like that. Seeing
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his long held dream of becoming CEO or co CEO
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crushed with mister Rowan's ascension, mister Harris kicked into high
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gears campaign to destroy mister Black. The suit says, like
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a Shakespeare's story, enraged and being passed over for promotion,
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he turned his wrath on his mentor and leader. So
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it's like, you know, they're setting it up like it's
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some Game of Throne style type stuff, right, some medieval
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you know, one brother's passed up for the other brother,
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so the other brother engages in this inter family struggle
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to gain control of the family unit. They're saying, it's
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the same thing going on here. Obviously it's a bit
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of hyperbole, right, And in my opinion, we already know
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that Leon Black had this relationship with mis Ganieva. We
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know that they had a physical romantic relationship while Leon
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Black was married, right, so we already know that they've
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had that sort of relationship. What would make me believe that,
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you Josh Harris is going to those lengths to put
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himself in basically criminal jeopardy to try and set that
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up all over him being passed up for this position. Now,
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let's not forget Harris has a gajillion dollars of his own, right,
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He's not missing any meals over this. Him and his
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family are still buying seventeen thousand private islands. You know,
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it's more of a pride thing, and we know with
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these people that's big deal. But enough to insert yourself
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in a manner such as this, that's what he would
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want us to believe. And it's kind of a shrewd
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strategy in my opinion, kind of look at the right
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hand while the left hand is over here making moves.
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But I don't think it's going to work, not in
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this current climate. Harris, according to the suit, convened the
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war Council, composed of law firms, public relations agencies, and
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political consulting firms to work against AGM's interests. He also
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left the company last year. Look, he's had enough. Right,
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everything happened, there was way too much animosity, way too
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many burned bridges for Harris to stay involved. So peace,
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see you later. Black claims Harris is also behind a
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conspiracy to retaliate and destroy him by, among other things,
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weaponizing a woman with whom Black had an affair to
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assassinate his character and extort even more from him. Look, bro,
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you would have us believe that you gave Jeffrey Epstein
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for one hundred and sixty five million dollars. But you're
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pinching pennies over here. If this was just a consensual
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relationship with miss Ganieva and you never abused her, you
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never took it r Epstein's none of this stuff ever happened.
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I'm sure you could have had an amicable type of
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situation here where you paid her a certain amount of
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do and been done with it. Now, look, I'm not
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saying that's the right thing to do. I think it's atrocious.
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My point is, if you have one hundred and sixty
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five million dollars to pay Jeffrey Epstein off, what are
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you worried about a couple one hundred extra grand going
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down this way? See, none of it makes sense when
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you look at Leon Black's defense and his story here
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because kind of like with Virginia Roberts and Prince Andrew,
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how the picture establishes that whole relationship that she alleges.
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In this instance, the fact that Leon Black has already
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admitted to the consensual relationship with Miss Kanieva already puts
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him in the room, if you will. So with everything
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we know, I'm giving a lot of credence to what
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she has to say. Now again, I wasn't there. I
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don't know for sure what happened. But until it's, you know,
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all worked out one way or the other, we're gonna
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talk about it because it's a big part of the
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overall Epstein case. People don't realize how big of a
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role that Leon Black played. You have a lot of
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people that go the Wexner route, and there's no doubt
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Les Wexner played a gigantic role in turning Jeffrey Epstein
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into what he became as far as financially and opening
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some doors. But Leon Black was on another level then
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even less Wexner folks. Less Wexner's powerful, he's rich, and
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he's all of that, but he's not Leon Black. Leon
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Black is an absolute great white shark when it comes
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to this sort of business, business in general. And this
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was the man who was look at a serious patron
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of Jeffrey Epstein's one hundred and sixty five million dollars.
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How much did that that money go? How far did
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it go to help further Jeffrey Epstein's criminal behavior, to
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help him and Maxwell continue to do what they did.
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Black admits to making secret payments of one hundred thousand
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dollars a month beginning in twenty fifteen to Gazelle Ganieva
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to keep their relationship confidential. Ganieva alleges in her own
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suit that Black sexually assaulted her when she refused his overtures,
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and look again, I was not there. There's a ton
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of gray area here. So we'll have to see how
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this all plays out one way or the other. All
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I could say is this, if you're going to hang
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out with Jeffrey Epstein and not just you know, oh,
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I saw him at a cocktail party and we had
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some of her roasteduenis together, hang out but great bread
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with old boy and break him off to the tune
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of one hundred and fifty eight hundred and sixty five
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million dollars. You better believe my antenna is gonna go
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up when someone makes an allegation against you. You are
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the company you keep after all right. Leon Black has
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taken victim shaming of sexual assault victims to a stratospheric level.
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Kanieva's attorney, Gene Christiansen of Whigdor LLP, said in a
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statement to the Current Black intends in the suit that
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Ghanieva demanded one hundred million dollars and threatened to reveal
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the relationship to his wife and Apollo's board, as well
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as the press if he did not pay her. And
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still one hundred million, that's a lot of dough, right,
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sixty five million less than you gave to Epstein for advice.
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Could have gave her this money and been done with it,
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Leon Black could have still been going on along your way.
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But nope, not the case. Your pride wouldn't let you
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do it, would it. Even if it's going ruin you,
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and I have a funny feeling it's going to folks.
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We have not heard the last about Leon Black and
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his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. And no matter which way
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this situation turns, this dude's going to have to answer
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for that eventually. Nevadic gaming regulators, who approved Caesar's Entertainment
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bankruptcy restructuring in twenty seventeen were either not interested or
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unaware of the secret monthly payments from Black to Ganieva.
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And here we come back to the circling around part right,
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circling back to it. And that's the Gaming Commission. I mean,
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come on, man, it's like all of the stereotypes of
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what the Gaming Commission is, that's exactly what they are.
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Remember when Michael Corleoni came Michael Corleone came to Las
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Vegas in the Godfather, and you know, he goes to
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see his brother and Moe Green's there and it's the
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whole thing. Then he gets that cowboy senator dude who
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shows up and gives them all kinds of grief about
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his gaming license. Yeah, kind of the same thing going
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on here still. Just you know, they're all wearing ten
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thousand dollars suits now instead. Longtime gaming attorney Frank Shrek,
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who represents AGM, says he was not involved in the
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company's restructuring. Shrek, a former member of the Nevada Gaming Commission.
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Oh shocker huh is the attorney who arranged for a
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corporate shell to secretly make seven and a half million
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dollars in payments to a win Las Vegas manicurist who
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claimed she was raped and impregnated by Steve Win in
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two thousand and five, according to the Massachusetts Gaming Commissions
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twenty and nineteen report on Win and his previous empire.
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I'm not even going to touch on that. I don't
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know enough about it. I know that Steve Win got
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chased from all of his properties here in Las Vegas
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over these allegations, So there must have been a little
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something something there, right, And you know how I feel
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about people who are that rich. I feel like all
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of these people are wired incorrectly, and you get to
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a certain level and it's like your brain stops working
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and your you know, whatever inner clock of morality that
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you're possessing, it just it breaks and you don't have
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one anymore. Massachusetts regulators, conducting an investigation into Wins Resorts
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gaming application in that state, asked Shrek if the purpose
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of the LLC was to hide Winds identity, not just
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Steve Winn, said Shrek, who told investigators he represented both
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Win and the hotel, just so this whole settlement would
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be maintained on the confidential agreements. So basically, I'm going
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to set up a shell company and use it to
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pay people out. I don't even understand how. See this
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is the thing, if you or I did any of
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this stuff, folks, we'd be in prison for a bazillion years.
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Underneath the prison. Look at the way they treat people
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for simple minor possession. And I'm not talking about violent criminals.
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Violent criminals deserve to be locked up, not even a question,
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no short bail, none of that. But nonviolent offenders get
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treated and getting treated worse than these gigantic crooks. These
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people have been stealing from US forever. No evidence surface
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during this investigation showing that in two thousand and five,
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anyone with knowledge of the Manicurius allegations of the settlement
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disclosed the matter to the Nevada Gaming Control Board. MASS
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investigators wrote their efforts at secrecy made it exceedingly difficult,
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if not impossible, for gaming regulators to detect this potential
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derogatory information through typical regulatory means, which rely heavily on
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robust self disclosures. So basically, they want them to self
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govern themselves, rich people to self govern themselves. That's what
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the gaming control boards saying over here, little wink wink
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nu jad trow yourselves. It's absurd. They're supposed to regulate
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all of this, and they're too busy worrying about nonsense
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like I was talking about earlier, then, very very very
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important things such as this, Shrek told MASS investigators. The
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Manicurist attorney initially alleged his client was raped by Win.
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At that point I said, if that's your position, then
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this is not a civil case. It's a criminal case,
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and the conversation ends, Shrek told investigators. And he backed
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off of that immediately, and we then went ahead and
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discussed whatever the next moves would be in terms of
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trying to resolve the case. So it's a bunch of
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he said, She said, like usual, right, Shrek says one thing,
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the another person says another thing, and you know you
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have yourself enough there for these people to claim plausible
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deniability and still somehow find their way to getting their
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gaming license or whatever it might be. The Nevada Gaming
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Control Board find Win Resorts twenty million dollars in twenty
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nineteen for failing to conduct an investigation into the two
20:06
thousand and five allegation. Shrek's law firm drew up the
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stipulated agreement between the hotel and the state, so it
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took them fourteen years to get things crack alacing twenty
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million dollars after fourteen years. Do you know how much
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money the Win Resorts brings in. It's an absurd amount.
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Their pool parties alone are bringing in an absurd amount.
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I know what the property I worked at for a
20:30
bazillion years. Four weeks of pool parties paid for their
20:34
whole year of operations. Absolutely insane. The amount of money
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these casinos bring in, So twenty million dollars is an
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absolute joke. The ten count complaint against Win Las Vegas,
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filed by Nevada gaming officials makes no mention of Shrek's
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role in concealing the seven and a half million dollars
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in payments. Why should it. Shrek, who was expected to
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represent Apollo Global Management before the Gaming Control Board this week,
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would not respond to whether black status as majority stockholder
21:05
of AGM is expected to be an issue in the
21:08
licensing Why should it be so? Even though he stepped down,
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mind you, Leon Black, Remember he's still the biggest stockholder
21:14
in Apollo Global, so he's gonna benefit from this greatly.
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And I'm not okay with that either. I just look,
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here's the thing. I don't want Apollo Global in Las Vegas.
21:25
All of these corporations have ruined my city. Las Vegas
21:29
was a great place when these casinos were all owned
21:32
by separate entities or separate people. I know. The hard
21:35
Rock Hotel was just absolutely amazing, an amazing place to work,
21:40
an amazing place to hang out, just overall great experience
21:44
until Peter Morton sold it in two thousand and eight.
21:47
Once Peter Morton sold the property, forget it and those
21:53
that's the Dominoes fell in Las Vegas and the corporations
21:56
came in, and this is the kind of shit you get.
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You get people Leon Black calling the shots for my money.
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It's almost you know, I say a tongue in cheek,
22:07
But we'd be better off with the mafia here, right,
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At least my blueberry muffins would have the right amount
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the blueberries in them. Apollo is offering two point twenty
22:19
five billion for the Las Vegas Sands operations, while VIICI Properties,
22:24
a real estate investment trust, will pay four billion for
22:27
the real estate. A spokesman for the Gaming Control Board
22:30
had no comment when asked whether chairman Bryn Gibson will
22:34
abstain from the AGM matter. Gibson, an attorney, worked for
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Shrek's law firm in twenty twenty. I highly doubt that
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he'll abstain. I just don't see it. Why would they
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Why would they abstain? Oh, there's no conflict of interest here.
22:49
We can separate our bias. Give them the permit, Give
22:54
them the permit, you know how it goes anyway. That's
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where we're at here with Apollo Global, and things are
23:02
moving fast with this whole story, and I want to
23:05
make sure we stay on top of it, and we
23:06
make some time for it when there's a little bit
23:08
of downtime like we have tonight with the Prince Andrew situation.
23:13
In the Glenn Maxwell trial, we're pretty much all caught
23:16
up there. So instead of rehashing the stuff that we've
23:18
went over the last couple of days, there's really no
23:21
context to add yet, I figured we would deviate the
23:24
course a bit here and talk about this because this
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is a big deal. And again, let's not forget that
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if this goes through and they're able to purchase this
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at this cut rate, by the way, this is a
23:35
good deal. The Sands is a very profitable company, and
23:39
we know that the restrictions and COVID, it's not going
23:41
to be here forever, folks. So they're looking long term.
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That's what they're looking at here, the long term evaluation
23:47
of this purchase. And for my money, I just don't
23:52
want to follow Global in Las Vegas, point blank period.
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I don't like Leon Black, and he's going to be
23:57
the one who benefits from this over all in the
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long run. So I hope the Gaming Commission does the
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right thing. Do I expect them to absolutely not? All right, folks,
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it's gonna do it for tonight's episode, a couple more
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contact episodes come in your way, and then tomorrow morning,
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right back at it. We'll pick up with Prince Andrew
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and Glenn Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein. We'll see where we're at
24:21
and we will go from there. I hope that everybody
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has a great night. If you'd like to contact me,
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you can do that at Bobby Kapuchi at ProtonMail dot com.
24:30
That's b o bbuy c ap U c c I
24:34
at ProtonMail dot com. You can also find me on
24:38
Twitter at b o bbuy underscore c ap U c CI.
24:43
The link that we discussed can be found in the
24:46
description box.