CASINO TARGETED IN CRIMINAL INQUIRY FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY : Gambling: The Huntington Park firm takes the action just as the county moves to collect $400,000 in back taxes and penalties.

A small Huntington Park casino, the target of a criminal investigation, filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the federal Bankruptcy Act just as county officials moved to collect $400,000 in delinquent property taxes and penalties, officials said Monday.

Huntington Park Club Operations, Ltd., part owner and operator of the Huntington Park Casino, owes its 20 largest creditors $610,382, according to the bankruptcy petition filed Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles.

The petition did not list the back taxes owed to the county.

The club is the subject of an investigation by sheriff’s detectives into alleged skimming of profits and violation of the minimum wage law. However, the bankruptcy filing will likely have no impact on the probe.

Huntington Park Casino, which opened in 1984, accumulated the property tax debt over the past five years, said Deputy County Counsel Martha E. Romero.

Romero said county officials have tried for several years to get the tax matter resolved.

They notified casino management last week that they planned, on Monday to begin an inventory the casino’s possessions, including gaming tables and cash registers, and seize them as collateral, Romero said.

The county would have had the right to sell the casino’s possessions if the tax bill went unpaid, but Romero said she wanted to work out a payment plan with casino officials.

Casino general manager and president Curtis J. Fresch and casino attorney Brendan P. Brady did not return calls for comment on the bankruptcy filing.

“Now we’ll have to go through bankruptcy petition and procedures under Chapter 11,” Romero said. “This has been going on for five years.”

Aside from the delinquent taxes, the casino’s debt includes more than $340,000 in legal fees owed to various lawyers and $27,250 for accounting services, according to bankruptcy papers.

Meanwhile, Huntington Park officials on Monday were trying to figure out what the bankruptcy action would mean to the city. Huntington Park owns the land on which the card club is located. It leases the land for 8% of the casinos’s gambling revenues. That amounted to $319,678 last year, according to city records, a sizable amount of money for a small city with a general fund budget of about $10 million. A casino employee, who declined to give his name, said the casino was open for business Monday.

“I don’t know if it would affect (city revenues) at this time,” Councilman Raul Perez said.

Donald L. Jeffers, the city’s chief administrative officer, said the casino has been making its lease payments to Huntington Park.

Revenues at the Huntington Park Casino have declined from 1986, when the city’s share was more than twice was it was last year. The casino always has had difficulty competing for customers with the larger, and more conveniently located Bicycle Club in Bell Gardens and the Commerce Casino in the City of Commerce.

The Huntington Park Casino’s problems grew earlier this month, when Los Angeles County Sheriff’s detectives identified casino management as the target of a criminal investigation. They searched and removed records on Oct. 10 from the casino, a nearby business and a casino attorney’s office. No arrests were made.

Detectives are trying to determine whether the casino’s management, including Curtis Fresch, were underreporting gambling profits and violating minimum wage laws, according to an affidavit for search warrants.

Detective Zoe Grillas said the investigation is continuing. No charges have been filed.

Councilman Jack W. Parks, who frequents the casino’s restaurant and bar, said the investigation probably has contributed to the financial problems that prompted the bankruptcy filing.

“I’m not surprised with the clamp down that’s happened,” Parks said. “I know it’s hampered their business.”