A casino bigwig and top contender to build one of New York state’s first full-blown Vegas-style casinos has a major skeleton in his closet — he was accused by his sister of sexually assaulting her, The Post has learned.
Nevele Investors and Claremont Partners CEO Michael Treanor — who plunked down a $1 million application fee last week to compete with 21 developers including Foxwoods, Empire Resorts and Caesars Entertainment for one of the four casino licenses being awarded upstate — pleaded guilty to third-degree assault in 2007 after a boozy night of carousing in New York City with his full-blood sister, according to a lawsuit she filed against him in 2008.
Treanor, now 48, was drinking at the now-shuttered Red Rock West Saloon in Chelsea in January 2007 when he got frisky with his inebriated sibling, according to court documents.
The married father of three daughters, ages 10, 15 and 17, who resides in Bernardsville, NJ, followed his sister back to her apartment at around 3 a.m. and allegedly pounced on her after she fell asleep.
“I remember suddenly being shoved across my bed and into the wall on the other side of the bed,” the sister, now 41, said in an affidavit.
“The knuckles on my right hand smashed into the wall. Michael pulled off my pajama bottoms.”
When she awoke, her brother was still in her bed. He then showered and left.
Treanor admitted to “having made intentional contact with the victim in this case recklessly causing injury to her genitals,” but he shockingly claimed it was consensual, according to a court memorandum.
His sister told The Post: “I stand by everything that’s in those papers . . . I have nothing to hide.”
The casino creep pleaded guilty to a lesser offense of third-degree assault in Manhattan Criminal Court and was sentenced to three years of probation and one year of psychological counseling.
He tested positive for cocaine twice during the first year of his three-year probationary period, according to court papers.
His sister then filed a civil suit against Treanor in 2008, the outcome of which was sealed by the court. She says she no longer speaks to her brother and that he remained married.
Treanor has been the face of the effort to restore the shuttered Nevele Grande hotel and resort in the Catskills with a $420 million proposal to turn it into a casino. The 466-room luxury resort closed in 2009 with $21 million in debt.
Treanor’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, said the alleged sexual assault was “a dispute over money, and I believe the allegations were engineered by a financial dispute. And he resolved this by deciding not to drag this up by going to trial, and he did so with a plea to a reckless offense. It was not a sex offense.”