Michael J. Malik, Sr. has been at the center of various plans to site a
Bay Mills Indian Community off-reservation casino in a lucrative urban market
for at least 15 years. Sites have included, downtown Port Horon, downtown Detroit’s Foxtown neighborhood; Port Huron Township; Auburn Hills; several other places, and back to Port Huron and the Thomas Edison Inn site. The tribe already has two casinos on its existing reservation lands in Brimley, Michigan.
The following six paragraphs are
excerpted from Testimony previously prepared for and presented to the
United States Congress, at a hearing of the
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs:
"From its inception, the federal [Charlotte Beach land claims] case had the air of a collusive suit. The federal complaint was filed on October 18, 1996.
"On October 10, 1996 – barely a week before suit was filed – one James F. Hadley purchased land within the Charlotte Beach claim area [specifically 3819 S. 1 Cottage Rd., Barbeau, MI 49710]...
"A few months later, on March 19, 1997, Hadley, representing himself, entered into a settlement agreement with Bay Mills...
"Mr. Hadley just happened to own some land in Auburn Hills, a Detroit suburb that he was willing to give Bay Mills in return for clearing his title to the Charlotte Beach lands, and he was also willing to sell Bay Mills land adjacent to that Auburn Hills parcel. The settlement was conditioned upon the Secretary of the Interior taking the Auburn Hills land into trust. The district court entered a consent judgment incorporating the settlement terms on March 28, 1997…
"When it became apparent that the trust approval was not forthcoming, Bay Mills moved on to pursue a different casino site, and the consent judgment with Hadley was set aside on August 16, 1999…
"The district court dismissed the federal case on December 11, 1998. The 6th Circuit affirmed this decision."
Fast forward five years …
In August 2004, Michael J. Malik, Sr. and his attorney William Serwer organize MJM Charlotte Beach, LLC with Malik as the entity’s manager.
In early November 2004, MJM Charlotte Beach acquires the Hadley/Charlotte Beach lands quietly via quit claim from the Toledo, Ohio estate of James F. Hadley for the sum of $121,301.38. It's unclear what relationship Malik or Serwer had with Mr. Hadley or his family prior to this; but understanding Malik's longterm involvement with various Bay Mills casino proposals and Hadleys role in the proposed Auburn Hills casino site, it's likely they had some prior association.
Sometime the during the year following Malik/MJM Charlotte Beach acquisition of the Hadley/Charlotte Beach properties, the parties discovered an error in the 2004 deed transfer documents regarding future division of the property and in November 2005 the parties re-executed the deed transfer documents with corrections allowing for "six divisions" of the former Hadley/Charlotte Beach property.
Two months later, January 2006, Malik signs documents on behalf of MJM Charlotte Beach, LLC transferring ownership of the former Hadley/Charlotte Beach properties to James M. Reed and Beth E. Reed of Tulsa, Oklahoma for the simple sum of $1.00 (recall that a approximately 14 months earlier, Malik/MJM Charlotte Beach paid Hadley's estate $121,301.38 for the property).
As it turns out, James M. Reed is a partner in the Hall Estill law firm’s Tulsa office and his specialties include Antitrust & Trade Regulation, Real Estate and Class Action lawsuits among others. Previously Reed acted as lead counsel for an interstate gas transmission and supply company in the successful defense of claims brought against it by the City of Detroit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, resulting in a verdict and recovery for his client TXU Energy Retail Co. in the amount of $9.4 million.
The Hall Estill law firm has approximately 113 attorneys, in four offices (Tulsa & Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Fayetteville, Arkansas; Washington, D.C.). The firms experitse includes Antitrust, Banking & Finance, Energy and Natural Resources, Indian Law, Oil & Gas, Real Estate and others.
Prior to forming MJM Charlotte Beach, Serwer and Malik also formed another entity, CB Property Investments, LLC in May 2002 which acquired and retains ownership of two additional parcels in the Charlotte Beach Subdivision; both with a site address at 3915 S. 1 Cottage Rd., Barbeau, MI 49710.
It is not clear what strategic advantage, game of leverage or other true purpose these acquisitions are intended to serve today or sometime down the road but you can be sure they aren't your routine specualtive real estate investments nor the place Malik plans to build his retirement home.
Given there's been some suggestion that the Bay Mills claims are no longer admissable in cout and that only the Saginaw Chippewa have retained the right to future court claims actions, perhaps it's as simple as being a troublesome property owner if and when the Saginaw Chippewa ever did attempt to exercise their legal rights to any land claims.
Or perhaps much like Mr. Hadley, Mr. Reed or CB Property Investments LLC will find a way to resolve some other land claims matter with the Bay Mills tribe that is admissable in Court by transferring land they own somewhere else (say, Port Huron perhaps) in exchange for resolving the Charlotte Beach dispute -- land the Tribe could take into trust for the purpose of gaming? Or perhaps there's some certain precious natural resource or long term development prospects associated with the Charlotte Beach property to which only a few today are privy.
Only time will tell. But given the players invovled, you can be sure it's some sort of complex scheme to create leverage, advantage and wealth.
