Founding and Investigation
In 1994 Boulis, already a multi-millionaire by founding the Miami Subs sandwich shop franchise, bought a number of luxury yachts. He remodeled the yachts as casinos, and began to operate his "cruises to nowhere", departing from the Florida coast into international waters. There, out on the sea, passengers would gamble at high stakes on poker, blackjack and slots. Boulis called his fleet of 11 ships the SunCruz Casino line. By the time he entered into negotiations to sell the company in 2000, SunCruz Casinos was earning tens of millions of dollars in annual profits, and employed over 2,000 people.
Florida state officials made several attempts to shut the business down, finally succeeding in 1999 when federal prosecutors charged Boulis with violating shipping laws over the ship's registration. U.S. shipping code forbids foreign nationals from owning American commercial vessels, and Boulis was a Greek citizen. Boulis agreed to pay a $1 million fine, sell the business, and never work in the gaming industry again. So that Boulis would be able to get a fair price when he sold, the deal with the federal prosecutors would be kept a secret until the deal was closed. In January 2000, Boulis went looking for a buyer.
Read more about this topic: Sun Cruz Casinos Sale (2000)
Famous quotes containing the word founding:
“The responsible business men of this country put their shoulders to the wheel. It is in response to this universal demand that we are founding today, All-American Airways.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)