There are more questions than answers about a plan being pushed by a Charlotte entrepreneur to buy land for a Charlotte Zoo.
His name is Robert Mussen; he's a proud poker player who founded a company years ago called Charity Games to raise money for a zoo with poker games.
Now he's back issuing a press release claiming he has lined up a contract on the land for a zoo. All he needs to start is $1.9 million in donations. Mussen says he is holding a series of “meetups” to try to raise the funds.
Trouble is, he told NBC Charlotte last week that he hasn't raised a dime yet.
I first confronted Robert Mussen a few years back, trying to follow the money from his poker games, money that was supposed to go to a Charlotte Zoo.
Mussen has been banging the drum for a zoo for years saying, “A zoo of significance would be real important to draw people here and also as an economic stimulant.”
But the NBC Charlotte I-Team found Mussen's poker payouts ate up a lot more money than ever made it to his zoo charity.
After reviewing IRS form 990 filings at our request, Tom Bartholomy of the Better Business Bureau said in 2011, “That's not a sustainable contribution record that would sustain the zoo or would meet our standards for charitable giving.”
Mussen describes himself in his press release as a “successful entrepreneur”. We found federal court records that indicate he declared personal bankruptcy in 2005.
Now he's back, putting out a press release "seeking to raise $1.9 million in private and public donations by August 1" to buy a tract of land off of Dixie River Road west of the Charlotte Douglas airport.
Dr. David Jones has worked for years with the North Carolina Zoo. He told us in 2011 that Mussen and his poker game couldn't scratch the surface of what it would take to build a zoo.
“If we started to build this place today with the purchase of the land you're looking at $300 million,” Jones said at the time.
Mussen's press release dated last Wednesday says that a Charlotte Zoo "could be sustainable without government and taxpayer funds once it exists as a viable entity."
But Mussen has approached both city and county administrators asking for what he called "support".
Mecklenburg County Assistant Manager Leslie Johnson says she asked Robert Mussen for a firm business plan with hard numbers and never got one.
County Parks and Recreation department manager Jim Garges called raising the money "a real stretch".
And Charlotte Deputy City Manager Ron Kimble says he told Mussen, "What you're doing, you're doing on your own".
So if Mussen is going to raise millions to start a Charlotte Zoo, he's probably not going to get it from the taxpayers.
