Ex-Spurs owner Holt, captain trade smuggling, extortion claims

A yacht captain is accusing former Spurs controlling owner Peter M. Holt of pressuring him to smuggle medication throughout worldwide borders — an allegation Holt calls fabricated and a part of an extortion scheme.

In dueling lawsuits, Jay Jones alleges he was pressured over months to acquire narcotics overseas and produce them into the United States aboard Holt’s yachts, whereas Holt denies the allegations and counters that Jones invented the claims to demand hundreds of thousands of {dollars}. Holt, whose household owns Holt Cat, additionally alleges Jones improperly took funds from a Holt-affiliated firm for private use.

Jones, who labored for Holt for greater than a decade, describes a relationship that developed from trusted worker to what he calls a coerced participant in criminality. He says he feared shedding his job and jeopardizing his captain’s license if he refused the requests.

His grievance describes journeys to acquire Xanax and Provigil, directions to hold medication for Holt on industrial flights via Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, and instructions to cover them within the engine room of one among Holt’s yachts or aboard his non-public jet to keep away from detection. Jones says he objected to the requests and in the end resigned after his refusals had been ignored, citing issues about Holt’s drug use.

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Holt’s lawsuit paints a sharply completely different image. It says Jones was a extremely paid worker who resigned after failing to acquire required certifications and being denied a elevate, then tried to leverage Holt’s struggles with habit into what Holt calls a “shakedown.”

Holt additionally alleges Jones “diverted” over $1 million to himself and his household from a Holt firm, and that Jones used his place to supply household and associates with what the lawsuit describes as “effectively free vacations” on Holt’s yacht.

The two sides tried to mediate the dispute final week. Holt’s lawsuit alleges Jones threatened to go public along with his claims except he was paid hundreds of thousands, an assertion Jones’ counsel disputes.

Holt filed his eight-page grievance Wednesday in Blanco County, the place he lives. 

“It is a sad fact of life these days that prominent people like Peter Holt suffer from these types of allegations, which he explicitly states are false,” mentioned Holt attorney Charles “Chip” Babcock of Houston.

Jones, who lives in Nueces County, filed a 21-page go well with Thursday in Harris County.

“Once Captain Jones refused to accept the almost million dollars that they offered him to keep quiet, they ran to court and filed a trumped-up suit thinking they would scare or intimidate him,” mentioned Houston attorney Tony Buzbee, who represents Jones. “That was a gross miscalculation.”

“Captain Jones worked for Holt for more than eleven years,” Buzbee added. “He was loyal and faithful. It is a shame that they would make up claims against someone who was a trusted employee.”

Holt, 78, led the Spurs possession group for 20 years as chairman  and CEO of Spurs Sports & Entertainment earlier than turning over management to his then-wife, Julianna Hawn Holt, in 2016. The group is now led by their son, Peter J. Holt, who additionally serves as CEO of Holt Cat, the nation’s largest Caterpillar gear dealership.

Peter J. Holt and his sister, Corrina Holt Richter, took control of Holt Cat from their father in 2017.

Holt Cat is known as as a defendant in Jones’ lawsuit. An organization spokeswoman mentioned it doesn’t touch upon pending litigation.

Also named in each lawsuits is HIPMH LP, previously often known as ECF Properties LP, which owns the yacht Adventurer.

In his grievance, Holt says Jones’ employment started to unravel after the corporate acquired a bigger vessel, Adventurer II, for which Jones allegedly lacked the required certification. Holt says he paid $6,000 for coaching, however Jones failed to finish the coursework.

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After Jones resigned in January, Holt says he supplied him a severance bundle value almost $400,000, together with a 12 months’s wage and advantages.

Months later, Holt says he acquired a letter from Jones claiming he had been constructively discharged attributable to a hostile work setting and had been requested to smuggle marijuana and acquire medication with no prescription.

Holt’s lawsuit characterizes these claims as a part of an effort to take advantage of his previous struggles with habit.

“We call this what it is: extortion,” the go well with states, including that Holt has “publicly struggled with addiction and PTSD” since his service within the Vietnam War in 1967-68. He served as a rifleman with the twenty fifth Infantry Division, incomes a Silver Star, three Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart for bravery in fight. 

A forensic audit was launched after Jones’ allegations surfaced and has to this point uncovered “substantial monies obtained by Jones from ECF,” Holt says in his go well with.

Jones’ lawsuit gives an in depth account of how he says the requests to acquire and transport medication unfolded, describing a sample that escalated over time and, he says, positioned him susceptible to prison prosecution.

In the grievance, Jones alleges Holt’s habit to narcotics “consumes his every action,” an allegation that underpins his account of repeated requests to acquire and transport medication.

In one early incident, Jones says he was despatched to retrieve what he was instructed was baggage from a storage facility in Florida, solely to find a cooler crammed with marijuana, which he says he felt compelled to move again to Texas.

Years later, Jones alleges the requests resumed and intensified, with directions to acquire Xanax and Provigil from pharmacies in Costa Rica utilizing his passport and produce the medication again into the United States. Holt, in his lawsuit, says he made a single request for the drugs and that they had been prescribed to him.

Jones says he struggled with the choice, weighing the danger of arrest, the lack of his Coast Guard captain’s license and his livelihood earlier than in the end complying below stress from his employer.

The grievance consists of photographs that Jones says present medication he was directed to move.

In one voicemail cited within the lawsuit, Holt allegedly requested him to “stash it and hide it” and to acquire “as much as you can get,” together with “100 pills, ten packs or more.”

Jones additionally alleges that Holt contacted him after resigning, asking him to rearrange for medication or join him with somebody who might, whilst the 2 sides mentioned a possible severance settlement.

Jones is in search of unspecified damages for misplaced pay, psychological anguish and harm to his profession on claims of wrongful termination and intentional infliction of emotional misery.

Holt is in search of greater than $1 million, together with reimbursement for bills he alleges Jones improperly charged to the corporate. He has sued Jones on claims of fraud, theft and breach of fiduciary.

Both lawsuits are pending.