TRACK MONEY SEIZED

The federal government has seized more than $3 million in proceeds of
the 2005 sale of the former Lakes Region Greyhound Park from its
former owners, citing a drug money-laundering operation that was run
at the track in 2003 and 2004. Moving under the broad powers of a
federal drug money forfeiture statute, the Justice Department has
essentially frozen $3.3 million paid for the track by Marlin
Torguson, who re-opened the facility as The Lodge at Belmont and is
not involved in the case. The money was escrowed and has yet to be
paid to various members of the Hart family and Vincent DiCesare of
Massachusetts.

The government seized the funds last September, just days after
lawyers for the long-feuding Hart family members agreed on how the
proceeds should be split. The money under seizure had been placed in
an interest-bearing Merrill Lynch account during state court
proceedings and negotiations involving the Hart family, according to
Ronald Cook, an attorney for Hart Parimutuel, the company owned by
former Lakes Region general partner Allan Hart. Cook said the money
remains in that account today and has never been disbursed to the
owners. In a civil case now pending at U.S. District Court, the
Justice Department seeks a ruling by a judge or jury that the money
should be forfeited to the government. Attorney Cook and court papers
filed by lawyers for other former owners say the proceeds of the sale
should not be forfeited because that money is unrelated to the money
that was being laundered through the track by former Belmont resident
Randy Noe.

Noe has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to
charges he conspired to sell oxycodone and launder money. "The funds
from the sale have nothing to do with Randy Noe's money," said Cook
said in an interview yesterday. "It's punishment. It's not like
they're claiming that it's dirty money because it isn't."

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Rob Rabuck said federal law allows for
seizure and forfeiture of "any and all property involved in the money
laundering, that would be the track, or any property traceable to the
property involved in the money laundering," which, he said, would
include the sale proceeds. Cook said the Justice Department is also
conducting a criminal investigation and has "interviewed some but not
all of the (former) owners and a host of former employees."

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph LaPlante, who heads his office's
criminal division, said he would not confirm a criminal probe is
under way. But he said, "Randy Noe and some of the other
co-defendants in that case were convicted of money laundering, among
other things, and like all drug investigations, this one will
continue until we have exhausted every avenue, and that includes the
facilities through which the money was laundered." Money in paper
bags Allan Hart closed the Lakes Region Greyhound Park in April 2005,
three months after two track managers, including his nephew, Richard
Hart, were indicted in New York on illegal gambling and
money-laundering charges.

Allan Hart surrendered the track's license in May 2005 after the
state Attorney General's Office called on state regulators to revoke
the license. Richard Hart was convicted last year in New York of
violating a federal law outlawing the interstate transmission of
wagering information, according to the government's complaint in the
forfeiture case.

In June 2005, federal authorities announced they had smashed a drug
trafficking and money-laundering operation by arresting 24 people,
including Noe, who now is serving 12 years in prison, according to
court records. The government alleges that Richart Hart, as the
track's general manager "was aware of Noe's drug dealing activities."
It says Hart allowed Noe to "launder his drug proceeds by exchanging
his small-denomination currency for $100 bills at the Park."

The complaint says that Noe "brought the cash to the betting windows.

Park employees would count the cash and deposit it into his betting
account." It says that Richard Hart later "instructed Noe to bring
the cash directly to him. Noe brought cash to Hart at least once for
deposit into his betting account." The money was then allegedly
brought to the pari-mutuels office window for counting and deposit
into Noe's account.

"Noe also withdrew $10,000 or more numerous times without anyone
filling out reporting forms as required by federal law," the
complaint says. It says Allan Hart "disclosed" that the track did not
file the proper Internal Revenue Service forms "when bettors have
brought in $10,000 or more in cash as required by federal law."

The complaint recounts numerous other alleged laundering incidents.

In November 2003, it says, a Noe associate delivered to Noe a paper
bag that contained about $35,000, which had been picked up from a
Massachusetts drug dealer. Another incident involved delivery of a
paper bag containing $11,000. Still another involved the delivery of
"$15,000 and $20,000 in small denominations in bags."

Noe and an associate "counted the cash at the table in the Lakes Room
and organized it with elastic bands.

Noe then had a track employee convert the cash into $50 and $100
bills," the complaint says.

The new money was placed in Federal Express boxes for delivery "to
pay for additional Oxycontin for Noe's drug distribution
organization," the complaint says.

It says Allan Hart said he was told by a track employee that "Noe
would bring in bags of money once or twice a week and ask her to
count it. Each bag would contain between $35,000 and $50,000."

A 'leap of logic' Attorney Cook charged none of this warrants seizure
of the sale proceeds.

He said federal attorneys "have made the leap of logic that, because
Randy Noe was running money derived from the sale of drugs through
his wagering account at the track, they are imputing knowledge of
that fact to the (former) owners and operators.

So they seized the proceeds from all of them.

"When you run into a law like this," Cook said, "you realize how a
lot of rights have been seriously eroded over the years as a result
of trying to break up the drug smuggling that was going on in this country."

Filing claims on portions of the seized $3.3 million are former
co-owners Allan Hart; Denise Hart, who is Richard Hart's wife; Joan
Hart, who is Allan Hart's sister-in-law; Kenneth Hart, who is
Richard's brother; Lisa Hart, who is Kenneth's wife; and former 40
percent owner DiCesare.

Richard Hart's wife, Denise, says in a court filing that she "had no
knowledge of the alleged (illicit) conduct" or of the "day-to-day
operations, activities or business relations" among those who worked
at the track. She says there is no "substantial connection" between
the proceeds of the sale and the alleged money-laundering operation.