NHL Len Barrie's $2.1 Million Debt To Bellagio Casino

Retired National Hockey League professional and former part-owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Len Barrie, 42, is currently being pursued by the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas for outstanding debts.
Apparently, back in May, 2008, Canadian Len Barrie negotiated credit worth US$1.5 million with the Bellagio at a rate of 18% interest per year, and backed up by 11 “negotiable credit instruments.”
Despite repaying $420,000 of the amount to reduce his outstanding debt to $1.08 million, Barrie’s credit instruments were then later returned “dishonoured” leading to the Bellagio taking court action in March 2011 to retrieve the remaining $1.08 million.
Subsequently, Clark County District Court in September 2011 awarded the Bellagio the full debt of $1.08 million plus $640,000 in interest and a further $420,000 in attorney fees and court costs, to take Barrie outstanding debt to $2,221,166.
The Bellagio’s notice of claim has now been filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, but Len Barrie is disputing the amount sought by the casino. Commenting on the suit, Barrie said:
“We have a little dispute and we will have to see how this finishes. We don’t agree with the amount. We’ve already paid $400,000, [and] we think the amount should be smaller. And when we settle on the amount, we’ll get it paid and will move on.”
As well as the Bellagio Casino’s lawsuit, Len Barrie is also facing a number of other suits related to his Bear Mountain development project in Langford, British Columbia, Canada.
Len Barrie claims he only earned up to $525,000 during each NHL season and was worth around $1.5 million in 2001, when he retired. It was then he turned his attention to real estate and resort development with one of his ambitious projects involving a 3,500 residential resort complete with two golf courses.
However, the project since ran into trouble and in 2010 was taken over by chief creditor HSBC Canada, with around $300 million owing to its creditors.
In the meantime, Len Barrie is also “under active investigation” for allegedly taking around $20 million from the  Bear Mountain company in order to pay for his share of the Tampa Bay Lightning team.