Hockey Pros Say They Were Burned in Mexico

LOS ANGELES (CN) - Fourteen NHL players say they were swindled out of millions of dollars when they invested in a Baja California golf club that was never completed.

The hockey players say Kenneth Jowdy and his agents took their money for the Diamante Del Mar Golf Club and Resort, in Cabo San Lucas.

The hockey pros say Jowdy told them was building a resort with two 18-hole golf courses that would be finished in three years, and that they would see a return on their investment within four years.

But the plaintiffs say, in two Superior Court complaints, that Jowdy hired childhood friends "with no development experience whatsoever," whose roles were ambiguous. They claim Jowdy, of Los Angeles, Manhattan Beach and La Jolla, paid his brother-in-law $500,000 a year plus travel and entertainment expenses to perform business activities "yet to be identified."

They claim Jowdy spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of their money on private jets and lavish parties which his friends Roger Clemens and Pete Rose attended, "and was also responsible for arranging for various female porn stars, escorts, strippers, party girls and other women to attend these functions, all paid for by the company."

The players say they had no idea that the resort plan was a disaster until Jowdy finally told them that their capital accounts were at zero.

The players seek $25 million in damages for breach of fiduciary duty, fraud and unjust enrichment, imposition of a trust and a receiver. They are represented by Ronald Richards of Beverly Hills.

Plaintiffs are Greg deVries, Jason Woolley, Chris Simon, Mattias Norstrom, Vladimir Tysplakov, Jay McKee, Raymond Murray, Glen Murray, Bryan Berard, Darrel Sydor, Dimitri Khristich, Sergie Gonchar, Michael Peca, and Jozef Stumpel. They say they lost $500,000 apiece, except for Woolley, who lost $250,000. Three other athletes, who are not named as plaintiffs, allegedly lost $500,000 apiece too.

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