Hard Rock International fired Alex Pariente, a senior vice president for hotel and casino operations, after a whistleblower’s allegation of financial wrongdoing.
This termination comes as Hard Rock’s bid for a New York City casino license is under review.
Key takeaways
- Hard Rock International terminated Alex Pariente, senior vice president for hotel and casino operations, for alleged financial misdeeds.
- The company also fired Pariente's assistant, Silvia Mendez, for violating money laundering rules.
- Negative publicity from the terminations broke while Hard Rock competes for a New York City casino license, complicating the operator's bid.
The financial irregularities linked to Pariente’s dismissal occurred at Hard Rock Punta Cana Casino in the Dominican Republic. According to a recording a whistleblower provided, Pariente directed an assistant to disguise a Chinese national’s $100,000 casino deposit, violating money laundering regulations.
Pariente also allegedly had a history of letting casino markers go unpaid. Pariente’s assistant, Silvia Mendez, broke down the $100,000 deposit into 33 separate deposits to stay under the casino’s reporting limits, a practice known as structuring. The company also reportedly fired Mendez.
“Hard Rock International has completed its initial investigation in connection with recent public allegations regarding executives at Hard Rock Punta Cana Casino and can confirm it has separated with the executive in question,” according to a statement provided to Casino.org, the source that initially broke the story. “This thorough examination included independent parties from two of the nation’s most respected law firms who specialize in gaming regulator and compliance issues to ensure objective analysis of our operations, reflecting our brand’s commitment to upholding ethical standards in all our business practices.”
The whistleblower, R.J. Cipriani, said he was pleased with the Hard Rock CEO’s actions. “I applaud (CEO) Jim Allen for believing in the intel I presented him with over a month ago. He acted swiftly.” Cipriani added, “I didn’t want the negative and illegal things that happened in Punta Cana to reflect negatively on Hard Rock’s attempt to get the downstate license in New York.”
The race for New York casino licenses heats up
The publicity surrounding Pariente’s termination comes at a bad time. Hard Rock is one of eight casino companies competing for one of New York City’s three casino licenses. Hard Rock, in partnership with New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, proposed an $8 billion casino complex next to Citi Field in Queens.
Last month, another casino license competitor ran into a potential roadblock when the New York City Council voted against a zoning change Bally’s sought. Bally’s wants to build its proposed casino on a golf course it owns in the Bronx. Luckily for Bally’s, New York Mayor Eric Adams vetoed the council’s decision. Maybe it wasn’t just luck, however. Apparently, Mayor Adams' campaign lawyer is a lobbyist on the Bally’s project.
Adams released the following statement, “The City Council’s decision to treat the Bronx differently than other boroughs goes against the publicly stated, in-favor positions of the Bronx borough president and other councilmembers representing working-class neighborhoods across the Bronx.”
Meanwhile, Caesars Entertainment hopes a little celebrity cache will help push its casino license bid through. Jay-Z’s Roc Nation joined with Caesars Entertainment and real estate developer SL Green to bid on the Caesars Palace Times Square (CPTS) project. The project is unique in that it proposes to repurpose an existing office building, forgoing some of the trappings of casino resorts properties.
“We’re not coming to compete with Broadway,” Jay-Z said. “We’re coming to be additive. Anything that we’ve done in the past, we’ve always included the community. We’ve never excluded the community.”
Not everyone, however, is hot on a Big Apple casino license. Both Wynn and Las Vegas Sands bowed out of the bidding. Wynn found the rezoning process to be untenable. Meanwhile, the Sands dropped its previously announced plans to convert the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island into a casino. Its concerns centered on potential iGaming legalization and competition.
