Lucky Bucks Files RICO Lawsuit Against Former Employees Alleging Systematic Looting of Company as Part of Years-long Organized Criminal Conspiracy Prior to Bankruptcy
ARC Gaming and Technologies, LLC f/k/a Lucky Bucks, LLC ("Lucky Bucks"), one of the largest Class B coin operated amusement machine ("COAM") route operators in Georgia, announced today it filed a lawsuit under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization ("RICO") Act in Fulton County Superior Court against nine former high-ranking employees and one independent contractor, ten Georgia limited liability companies that now hold COAM master licenses, and two companies controlled by the defendants in furtherance of the criminal scheme.
The defendants named in the complaint include Anil Damani, founder and former owner of Lucky Bucks, who in June 2020 was required by the Georgia Lottery Corporation ("GLC") to be barred from Lucky Bucks operations. Additional defendants named in the complaint include the former executive and operations management of Lucky Bucks: Tony Kassam, Imran Ali, Al Amin Sayani, Derrick Smith, Arnaldo "Johnathan Linares" Perez, Jonathan Howard, Shakeel Haque and Ananda Vaswani. Each of the former Lucky Bucks employees either resigned before or shortly after the new management took control of the company or was subsequently terminated. Mohibul Motin, the nominal owner of Blue Georgia, Inc., a shell company allegedly used to illegally funnel proceeds to defendants, is additionally named in the complaint.
The complaint alleges that the defendants knowingly engaged in extensive criminal behavior, violated Georgia's RICO law, misappropriated trade secrets, committed fraud and breach of contract, and converted property rightfully owned by Lucky Bucks to the defendants' control, among other charges. Kassam, Ali, Vaswani and Haque are additionally accused of breaching their fiduciary duty as senior members of Lucky Bucks by engaging in self-dealing transactions. These activities were initially uncovered by a team of industry professionals with extensive route gaming experience who were contracted by the new shareholders in September 2023 to oversee and review the operations and business practices of Lucky Bucks. Further analysis through forensic investigators, litigation case analysis and interviews led to the formal complaint being filed today.
On October 3rd, Lucky Bucks announced the completion of its restructuring process and successful emergence from Chapter 11. Lucky Bucks' exit from the bankruptcy process concluded a swift restructuring that received approval of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware through confirmation of its chapter 11 plan of reorganization on July 28, 2023, and approval of the Georgia Lottery Corporation on September 29, 2023. This emergence and restructuring have put Lucky Bucks in a strong financial position going forward and will allow the company to again compete and grow in the Georgia COAM business.
Additionally, Lucky Bucks has formally engaged the gaming professionals brought in to review the operations and businesses practices to become the new Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, whose appointments will be announced in the near future. This provides the company with a strong management team that has past experience operating routes with more than 8,000 terminals in highly regulated route gaming markets. It also provides the company with a management team dedicated to responsible governance, customer service, new technology and growth for the future. While the legal proceedings are a necessary step to dealing with the past alleged criminal behavior and how it might have affected the past company performance, it will not affect the goals of the new shareholders and management to reestablish Lucky Bucks as a major player in the Georgia COAM industry.
About ARC Gaming and Technologies, LLC
ARC Gaming and Technologies, LLC f/k/a Lucky Bucks, LLC is a leading digital skill-based COAM operator based in Georgia, with a new, longterm-focused ownership group and new management team with more than 50 years of experience in the gaming industry. Since Lucky Bucks launched in 2014, the Company has continuously grown to meet increasing consumer demand, which remains extremely strong in Georgia. Currently, Lucky Bucks machines can be found in over 345 retail locations throughout the State of Georgia.
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