“There was no due diligence on the part of Hilton as to what they were doing with their quarter of a million dollars,” Wolfson said. Testimony at a recent gaming commission hearing probing Hilton’s license request showed that Anderson had urged Hilton to award the grant to Nathan.Īt the hearing, some of the gaming commissioners said they were also surprised by Hilton’s failure to track how the $250,000 grant to Nathan’s firm was spent, said Wolfson, the gaming commission chairman. The commission was concerned over the first-and so far only-$250,000 grant Hilton has made to a firm headed by Michelle Nathan, a business associate and former employee of Elbert Anderson.Īnderson, a public relations executive, is the former chairman of the Kansas City Port Authority, which oversees gambling development in the city and approved Hilton’s riverboat plans in January 1993. “The fact that didn’t check who these folks were and didn’t know what their performance was problem.”
“The cause is worthwhile,” said Irwin of the Hilton proposals.
It was not the proposals but the individuals who would directly benefit from them that triggered worry among regulators, said Tom Irwin, executive director of the Missouri Gaming Commission.
