Whatever

Now comes a lawyer who says I blew it. Roy Morris, an attorney representing former high-tech mogul Mark Floyd, says that statements published in the July 1 Hash Over column referring to Floyd as an investor in the defunct restaurant Vino & Basso are false. In that column, I referenced statements from Bluewater Restaurant Group President Michael Costa saying that Floyd was an investor. This was supported by three other sources inside the restaurant, including Vino & Basso's publicist. Morris takes issue: "The fact that Costa was making statements or that somebody inside the restaurant was making statements doesn't make it so," Morris argues. "He had zero ownership, zero obligation to do anything. He had no role in this."

That's news to Costa.

"I would find that to be very odd, since he [Floyd] had been in on several meetings regarding the restaurant," Costa says of the denial from Floyd's lawyer. Costa, who founded Bluewater to operate Vino & Basso, indicated that Floyd was the firm's major backer, and the Dallas Observer has run Hash Over columns stating this in both June and August 2003. Yet following a column on the closure of Vino & Basso after Bluewater failed to make lease and utility payments, Costa alleged that his investor--Floyd--and his landlord, Monticello West Ltd., didn't live up to their promises.

Costa explained to the Observer that Floyd had been directing investment resources to the restaurant through his daughter Melissa Floyd, who was a Basso manager and a minority owner of Bluewater with 22 percent stake to Costa's 78 percent share. Morris says he has no knowledge of this purported arrangement. "Whether or not his daughter was involved was a different issue," says Morris, who is also representing Melissa Floyd..."I don't know Miss Floyd's financial position, whether or not it was directly from her or she was getting resources from her family...Even if it did come from Mr. Floyd to his daughter, it is an irrelevant point, I would think."

In the wake of Vino & Basso's demise, Melissa Floyd filed a pair of lawsuits against Costa alleging negligent misrepresentation, fraud and breach of fiduciary duty, among other charges, in his management of Vino & Basso. In court filings, Floyd says that between December 2002 and August 2003, she loaned Costa some $300,000 to establish and operate the restaurant. No payments were made on the loan between September 2003 and June 2004, the suit says. Floyd alleges that the funds she funneled to Bluewater were "obtained wrongfully, by fraud or otherwise," and Morris adds that resources earmarked for Vino & Basso were never used to build the restaurant or "to enhance the restaurant's position."