Richard Fields doesn't have the best "track" record when it comes to ethical business practices. There are a number of court cases against him, both past and present, that should be very concerning to us as a community. In 2012, the family of former Wyoming governor Cliff Hansen entered into a legal battle with developer Richard Fields over the terms of their purchase agreement for the family's 1,750-acre ranch, which had been homesteaded by Governor Hansen's father in 1898. Fields claimed that the family hadn't fully vacated the property and asked a district court to rescind the contract, while Fields stopped making payments on the debt he took on when buying the Jackson Land & Cattle Ranch in 2006 for $69 million. Since then, the Hansen family has filed a notice of foreclosure against Fields for the $52 million he still owes them.
In 2008, Richard Fields, a one-time Trump "apprentice" ran afoul of The Donald over a failed attempt to woo the Seminole tribe for a casino project in Florida for Trump. Fields later did the deal with a different partner, prompting Trump to sue. That lawsuit went away as part of a deal in which Fields' company, Coastal Marina LLC, agreed to buy Trump Marina Hotel Casino for $316 million. One stock analyst said the price, which he considered too high, might represent a concession on Fields' part to resolve the lawsuit.
In 2017, seven former minority owners of Suffolk Downs, including five local investors, accused developer Richard Fields and his firm of withholding $2.6 million from them after the $155 million sale of the property earlier that year. The investors filed a lawsuit in Suffolk County Superior Court against Fields and his Coastal Development SSR, LLC
In 2020, Richard Fields was found to have illegally transferred money to family members in order to avoid paying a court settlement from yet another NY court case.
When Suffolk Downs closed, it had not been profitable in almost 7 years and its owners — developer Richard Fields and food concessions entrepreneur Joe O’Donnell — had lost about $50 million to $60 million during that time.
Do you think Fields and his partners at Commonwealth Equine LLC will "pony-up" on what they promised the town of Hardwick when this horse track fails? His track records tells us all we need to know.
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