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In the past few months, the Bradley Paumen Saga has gone sort of dormant while the criminal prosecution wends its way through the court system.

in January of this year, the American tour operator, who owns the Dark Night Tour Company, was accused of hatching a plan to murder his neighbour, Iranian-American Businessman Michael Modiri, and 3 of associates, including his bodyguard and his attorney.  But, while Paumen faces a number of criminal charges, for which Modiri is the main complainant, these two are locked in a private war, waged in the civil court and at ground zero in Franks Eddy Village. The problem is and has been that as landowners, they can’t get access to their properties without stepping on each other’s toes.

Modiri sued Paumen in the Supreme Court and won when the court determined that Paumen was trespassing on his land to run his million-dollar tour guide operation. Modiri was awarded 300 thousand dollars in damages and compensation for that dispute, which Paumen has to pay. Also, the Gaspar Vega-led Ministry of Natural Resources got a slapdown judgment when the court ruled that they improperly acquired Modiri’s land for a public purpose. As we reported, because the Government acquired Modiri’s land, it allowed Paumen to build an access road, which he uses to ferry his cruise guests from the cruise ship to his Dark Night operation.

That acquisition was reversed by the Supreme Court, but the road was already built.  And, even though Paumen has been ordered to stop trespassing on Modiri’s land, Modiri says that the trespass continues and Paumen has returned to business as usual.

So, Modiri is now making a stance to tell Paumen, that he’s had enough, and unless he pays rent to access the land, he will not be allowed to bring guests to his Dark Night compound. To do this, he has built a gate at the entrance of his land where the road passes, and he has hired a security firm to stand guard 24-7. It’s the kind of thing that could get worse before it gets better because Modiri’s stance will slowly choke off Paumen’s business operation, and remember that a million-dollar company is on the line.

He spoke with us today to explain why he’s not backing down, even if it comes to a stand-off:

Michael Modiri
"Since the judgement was issued about five, six months ago he has refused to honour it, he has refused successive orders to stop trespassing, he's refuse to pay the damages awarded, he refuses to acknowledge the demand that we sent him through his attorney, he doesn't even answer it. His attorney has said something but it's not on record so I don't want to bring it up but this man acts like he owns the land."

Daniel Ortiz
"What is your plan to in terms of these security personnel?"

Michael Modiri
"We'll continue to have them on site; they will not allow anybody in. As far as what his plan is and when he will decide to obey the law I can't read his mind."

Daniel Ortiz
"Persons who know nothing of the history between you and Mr. Bradley Paumen would look at that and take the interpretation that you're doing this out of spite, out of just bad mindedness, trying to get back at him for all he has put you through which could definitely affect his business negatively."

Michael Modiri
"Well it's intended to stop unlawful access. Respect the law, honour the agreement that he made with me, his attorney and my attorney met and we came up with an agreement that he's not honouring. If I was malicious I would say okay I'll block the gate, it will take me six months to build my own operation and in that six months you're dead, I won't let you in; but that's not the position I've taken. I said you're welcome to use it, keep your employees, keep the tours going but pay your rent."

Considering that stopping Paumen’s guests from passing will mean that those tourists will have their tours destroyed, Modiri says he has come up with a work-around to have another tour operator on standby.

Tune in to tomorrow’s newscast, where we’ll dive deep into Modiri’s background and his interest to enter the same tour operating business, which will make use of the controversial Dark Night cave system.