Las Vegas prosecutors want to extradite Fresno businessman Kirk Vartanian to answer charges of passing about $250,000 in bad checks at two Nevada casinos.
First, though, Fresno County prosecutors could file charges as soon as today accusing Vartanian of threatening a woman with a knife and trying to suffocate her with a pillow. Fresno police are not identifying the woman.
Vartanian remains in Fresno County jail, where he was booked early Saturday morning on suspicion of felony domestic violence, assault with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment. Vartanian's bail for Fresno and Clark counties totals more than $660,000.
Lawyers who represent Vartanian in some of his business interests declined to comment Monday.
Vartanian's serious legal problems also are raising questions about the future of Granite Park, the long-troubled retail-recreation project in east-central Fresno that Vartanian has vowed to almost singlehandedly revive.
A top official in the lending company that owns much of Granite Park's retail property said Monday that the project, burdened with so much bad publicity in the past year, probably needs a rebirth that begins with a new name.
On the legal front, Bernard Zadrowski, who heads the bad check unit in the Clark County District Attorney's Office, said he approved an extradition warrant for Vartanian on Monday and sent it electronically to Fresno law enforcement officials.
According to documents filed by prosecutors, Vartanian wrote 16 bad checks totaling $250,000 to Venetian Resort and Casino and Wynn Hotel and Casino, both in Las Vegas, between Sept. 9, 2007, and Nov. 3, 2007. Prosecutors contend that Vartanian received "cash and/or gaming chips" for the checks that bounced.
The bad checks ranged in size from $4,000 at the Venetian to a pair of $50,000 checks at the Wynn, prosecutors contend.
Zadrowski said Vartanian began paying on his debt, reducing it to $241,025, but stopped. A bench warrant for Vartanian's arrest was issued June 8.
Zadrowski said he's had bad-check cases involving millions of dollars. The nearly $250,000 owed by Vartanian ranks in the highest 25% of his bad-check cases, he said.
"That's a lot of money to you and me," Zadrowski said. "That being said, this is Vegas. For here, that's not unusual."
In Fresno, police say Vartanian and the woman argued about a $135,000 watch Friday afternoon in a northeast Fresno home. It ended hours later with the woman, scratched and bruised, locked in a bathroom, police said.
Instead of being in jail and facing extradition to Nevada, Vartanian at one time had expected the end of June to see the blossoming of his ambitious plans for Granite Park.
Over the past six weeks, he announced plans to:
* Bring a slice of Las Vegas glamor to Fresno with The Edge nightclub, located in the former Cabo Wabo Cantina site.
* Open a Russian steakhouse called Red and a House of Blues-style restaurant called Memphis Blues in sites next to The Edge.
* Operate the remodeled Grace O'Malley's Public House, a restaurant in a building near the other three businesses.
Unanswered questions abound for it all. The Edge opened briefly in mid-June, thanks in part to a one-day liquor license. The Public House is closed; Vartanian said last week he is working to get a liquor license for it. Red and Memphis Blues have yet to open.
Christine Weldon, district administrator of the state Alcohol and Beverage Control, said Monday that Vartanian has no pending liquor license applications for any site at Granite Park.
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