Aqueduct slots bidder detailed

Aqueduct Entertainment Group, one of the seven bidders seeking to build and operate a casino at Aqueduct in New York, includes a hodgepodge of gambling and real-estate development companies, according to information distributed by the group.

Partners in the project include GreenStar Services Corporation, a construction company; the Navegante Group, which built and runs a casino in Niagara Falls; The Darman Group, which was co-founded nearly 10 years ago by New York's senate majority leader, Malcolm Smith, in New York; Empowerment Development Corporation, which was founded by the majority leader's pastor, Rev. Floyd H. Flake; Siemens, the multinational engineering company; Paulus, Sokolowski, and Sartor, a construction consulting company; Clean Power, an environmental consulting group; and Levine Builders, a Queens-based contracting company.

Aqueduct Entertainment Group submitted a bid to build and operate the casino on Friday, along with six other companies or partnerships. The winning bidder will be determined by Smith, New York Gov. David Paterson, and the speaker of the assembly, Sheldon Silver.

Although Smith was a co-founder of the Darman Group in 1999, he resigned his position from the company in 2000 after being elected.