Fraudster’s gambling losses at Wynn lead to subpoena request

A Canadian business executive who loaned a California man $3.5 million as an investment in a cannabis business is trying to recover the money, believed to have been lost gambling at Wynn Las Vegas.

Ontario, Canada resident Stephen Shefsky, president and CEO of Toronto-based James Bay Resources Ltd., is seeking an order through the U.S. District Court in Nevada to take discovery in foreign court proceedings.

If successful, the order would enable Shefsky’s Las Vegas-based legal team to subpoena Wynn officials for information on gambling by the loan’s recipient, David Bunevacz, who was sentenced in November to 17½ years in prison for fraud.

Bunevacz, a former UCLA decathlete who once competed with the Philippines national team, pleaded guilty on July 18 to one count of securities fraud and one count of wire fraud.

Wynn Resorts is accused of failing to report huge gambling losses to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which tracks money laundering.

U.S. District Court Judge Dale Fischer said Bunevacz was involved in a ponzi scheme and “preyed on individuals who believed he was their friend” as he sought investors to market cannabis vape pens in legal marijuana markets.

Representatives of Wynn Resorts, who just learned of the foreign court proceedings, did not comment on the case Monday.

In California court documents, Bunevacz attended a cannabis business convention in Las Vegas with Shefsky and stayed at the Wynn.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Central California District, Bunevacz falsely told at least one investor he had a longstanding relationship with a Chinese manufacturer of disposable vape pens and he obtained “raw pesticide-free oil” that was sent to a “lab that infuses the flavors into the oil with our proprietary custom process that renders the vape flavoring smooth and discrete,” according to court documents. Bunevacz also provided investors with forged documents — such as bank statements, invoices and purchase orders — to support his claims of the businesses’ success and the need for investor funds.

Instead of using the funds to finance business operations — while some of his victims were suffering severe financial hardship — Bunevacz misappropriated the vast majority of the money to pay for his own opulent lifestyle, including a luxury house in Calabasas, California, Las Vegas trips, jewelry, designer handbags, a lavish birthday party for his daughter, and horses, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a release.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Bunevacz fraudulently raised more than $45 million from an estimated 100 investors. At the sentencing, Fischer ordered Bunevacz to pay $35.3 million in restitution, the total amount believed to be lost by investors.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.