LONDON — Jonathan Kendrick, the British co-founder of the ROKiT group that paid $9.75 million to put its name on the Houston Rockets’ jerseys, applied and filed Monday at Westminster Magistrates’ Court for a criminal summons against Tilman Fertitta’s attorney, Rocco Filippo Nicola Magni.
Magni is the Houston lawyer who collected the Rockets’ $11 million arbitration award against his company. The application charges perverting the course of justice. In a witness statement signed the same day, Kendrick says Magni told him by phone, in substance: “Unless you pay the money, we will come after you, your wife and family.” Magni represents the Rockets and their owner, Tilman Fertitta, Donald Trump’s appointment for the United States ambassador to Italy. Fertitta has notably given heavily to both Republicans and Democrats. Fertitta’s money is largely centered in the gambling industry, and his newest acquisition is Caesars Entertainment. Fertitta is also a heavy donor to the Houston Police Department.
“Unless you pay the money, we will come after you, your wife and family.”
Kendrick did not take the call alone. Dean Becker, then vice chairman of ROKiT companies, swore an affidavit on June 26 that he shared an office with Kendrick in January 2022 and overheard the conversation on speakerphone, and that Magni “personally threatened Mr. Kendrick, his wife and family if RoKit did not pay an arbitration award.” The affidavit is filed in federal court in Los Angeles and sits in the London bundle as Exhibit JK1. On camera on Oct. 9, Becker put it this way: “Mr. Magni very clearly said to him, you will pay the bill or I will come after you, your wife, and your family, in a very threatening tone.” He added: “I sat there, and I was actually stunned.”
Kendrick’s own account, recorded the same day, has him pushing back on the call. “I pointed out to him that I don’t even owe the money. The company allegedly does, not me. He said, that’s irrelevant. You either pay it or we’re coming after your family. I put the phone down.” The company is Able Events Inc., formerly ROKiT Marketing, the entity that signed the jersey deal. It filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy six weeks after the call.
The Gun Threat
Days after the call, Becker says, vehicles began appearing outside ROKiT’s offices in Culver City, California. “I recall a black van or two sitting in the parking lot who sped away when we approached them,” he said on camera, then corrected himself: “It wasn’t a van, it was an SUV, like an Escalade or a Suburban.” His affidavit says the same, and that he has “reason to believe” the vehicles were connected to the threat. Kendrick went out to confront them himself, “which is probably a stupid thing to do,” he said, “and they drove off at speed.” His federal complaint says he was followed by such vehicles on at least one occasion and that he later moved house out of fear for his family.
Then, last month, a vehicle came back with a weapon. “Only last month we’ve had a car come round here, open the window and point a gun at one of senior management,” Kendrick said. “The next day he returned.” Kendrick says he reported it to the FBI and to Santa Monica police, and that an FBI agent has since been assigned. In an email to the Rockets’ lawyers on Monday he said a copy of the London filing was going to that agent and to Interpol.
Kendrick does not claim to know who sent the gunman. “I don’t know at all if that’s anything to do with this,” he said on camera, and of the SUVs: “I cannot say that’s associated with this, but two plus two may equal four.”
The filings do show a sequence. A lawyer allegedly threatened his wife and children. Weeks later, cars surveilled his office. Last month a man pointed a gun at his staff. Most of this happened while Kendrick and Tilman Fertitta’s Rockets were fighting over an award in a bankruptcy proceeding, where Kendrick was a material witness.
“I Took It As A Personal Threat Against My Life”
The two men met again across a deposition table in Los Angeles, with Magni questioning Kendrick for the Rockets in the bankruptcy case. Kendrick raised the call on the record. According to the transcript quoted in his federal complaint, he told Magni: “You also threatened me personally, which normally I wouldn’t take as a threat from a lawyer, but because of your client, I was advised possibly to take some bodyguards.” He then read into the record a news article describing the Fertitta family’s Galveston roots in the Maceo organization, and said: “When you threaten me personally, I took it as a personal threat against my life.” Magni’s answer, on the record, was: “I sent you a demand letter, sir.” The transcript ends the exchange with Kendrick telling him, “There’s no need to smirk.” On camera Kendrick describes the same moment: “He smiled and sniggered, for which I replied, don’t smile and snigger, mate, you threaten my family.”
The Money Behind The Operation
The dispute began in August 2018, when the Rockets’ sponsorship broker, Jason Miller of Excel Sports Management, emailed ROKiT that Fertitta’s son Patrick had “made it clear that we could push your products at all 600 Landry’s owned and operated locations around the world.”
Kendrick flew to Houston, lunched with Tilman Fertitta at a Landry’s-owned Mastro’s, and watched Fertitta pick ROKiT’s Bogart’s vodka over Tito’s in a blind tasting. ROKiT signed the jersey deal on Oct. 9, 2018 and paid $9.75 million for the first season.
By January 2020 Landry’s had bought about $440,000 of ROKiT liquor. ROKiT stopped paying allegedly because Fertitta violated a side beverage agreement. The Rockets went to arbitration in March 2020 and won $11.23 million plus interest and fees, Sportico reported; a Texas court in Houston, Texas, Fertitta’s “home court,” confirmed it and the Rockets domesticated it in Los Angeles in March 2024.
Kendrick’s liquor case did not succeed. ROKiT’s drinks companies sued Landry’s and Fertitta Entertainment in Houston in May 2022 over the restaurant promise. The district court strangely dismissed it without any discovery having taken place, and on Aug. 8, 2025 the Fifth Circuit affirmed on a ground that stings: the deal ROKiT described, a liquor maker paying a restaurant chain to stock and sell its brands, is illegal under the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code and void.
The court noted the jersey contract itself said it was “in no way conditioned on or subject to the sale of Sponsor’s alcohol,” and quoted Kendrick’s own January 2019 email: “I know we could not put this in the contract but it was clearly agreed.” Kendrick’s position now is that while Fertitta’s side knew the deal was illegal from the start, he did not, and they let the arbitration run without saying so. On camera he describes the deal in the terms the Fifth Circuit found fatal: “I would pay him 10 million if he agreed to put into all of his restaurants our liquor.”
Since then Kendrick had sued in Florida, where he named Magni and law firm Susman Godfrey for fraud and then voluntarily dismissed in August; in Los Angeles, where Able Events filed a $400 million fraud and racketeering complaint in March against the Rockets and both Fertittas, saw it removed to federal court, drew sanctions motions and a bid to have it declared a vexatious litigant, both of which failed, and dropped it in July; and again in Los Angeles, where on June 3 he filed, without a lawyer, a federal racketeering suit against Magni, Susman Godfrey, Tilman Fertitta and Patrick Fertitta built on the threats.
That case, No. 2:26-cv-06009, is pending before Judge Wesley Hsu with three motions to dismiss on file. Fertitta, confirmed 83-14 by the Senate on April 29, 2025, resigned his executive posts at Landry’s but says he keeps a passive ownership interest in the team and the restaurants.
Tilman Fertitta Alleged To Have “Effectively ‘Bribed’ Both Political Parties”
Fertitta bought his way into both parties, and he was not subtle about it. In the 2020 cycle he gave $140,000 to Trump’s reelection and $5,600 to Joe Biden. In 2024 he put about $487,000 into the Trump 47 committee and $6,600 into Kamala Harris’s campaign, then gave $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee and co-hosted an inauguration reception with Mark Zuckerberg and Miriam Adelson. In Texas he has given more than $1 million to Gov. Greg Abbott.
Trump named him ambassador to Italy a month after the election. Kendrick’s federal complaint calls this a “classic hedge” by which Fertitta has “effectively ‘bribed’ both political parties,” and says a review of Federal Election Commission records shows it. The records show the giving. The word is Kendrick’s.
It is not the first time Fertitta has leaned on Washington. In March 2020 he furloughed 40,000 workers, about 70 percent of his restaurant, hotel and casino payroll, with three months of health coverage, and told Bloomberg he had asked government officials to lift stay-at-home orders within weeks so his properties could reopen at 30 to 40 percent capacity. Five years later the Senate Foreign Relations Committee gave him two hours on April 1, 2025, and asked about energy, undersea cables and the trade deficit and not about his Mafia ties.
Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, introduced him with his family’s story of emigrating from Sicily to Galveston. Nobody asked about the rest of that story. Fertitta’s family is related by marriage to the Maceos, the brothers who ran Galveston’s gambling and vice rackets from the 1920s into the 1950s, a history Texas Monthly has told and that Kendrick read into the record at his deposition. Kendrick says in his complaint that he discovered the Maceo connection after the dispute, informed the committee of “the likelihood of mob ties” before the vote, and that the committee “did not investigate and looked the other way.” The committee has not said whether it received anything from him. The Senate confirmed Fertitta 83 to 14.
International Prosecution Action
England lets a private citizen prosecute. Kendrick’s application, filed under section 1 of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980 with ROKiT’s English drinks company as his address, asks the court to issue a summons and arrest warrant on the basis that Magni intimidated him to stop him pursuing proceedings in England against Landry’s and Fertitta Entertainment; a 31 May 2022 demand letter from ROKiT Drinks Group to those companies is attached to show English proceedings were contemplated. Before issuing, the court must be satisfied the offence is made out on its face and that it has jurisdiction, and it may refuse an application brought for a collateral purpose. The Crown Prosecution Service can take over a private prosecution and drop it.
Fertitta’s Lawyers Answer
We reached out for comments and were able to reach Nicolas Molina Jr., counsel for the Houston Rockets. Molina did not want to be quoted on the record, and asked nervously that we not reference his law firm as being involved in the litigation. “I would ask that no comments are made – or no public references to our firm or us by name be mentioned – or nothing of that sort. I would actually prefer you to wait ‘til Tuesday, and maybe Joel can get you a lot more information that he’s willing to share on the record.”
Attorney Michael Sammie Goldberg from the law firm Baker Botts in Houston, called us the next day. Goldberg is listed as counsel for Rocket Ball, Ltd., the Houston Rockets’ operating entity. Goldberg was blunt and stated that “both lawsuits would be dismissed shortly.”
We called Joel Deutsch Esq. for comment on Tuesday, but did not hear back.
Asked for comment, the U.S. Embassy press office for Ambassador Tilman Fertitta in Rome declined on the State Department’s behalf and referred us to Landry’s general counsel. Landry’s general counsel is Steve Scheinthall, whose name is on the 2018 emails about integrating ROKiT’s spirits into Landry’s restaurants.
Sources: Kendrick v. Magni, application for the issue of a summons, information, witness statement of Jonathan Mark Kendrick and Exhibits JK1 to JK3, Westminster Magistrates’ Court (Oct. 19, 2026); Sworn Affidavit of Dean Becker (June 26, 2026), filed in Kendrick v. Magni et al., No. 2:26-cv-06009 (C.D. Cal.), Doc. 9; Kendrick v. Magni et al., complaint (June 3, 2026) and docket through Oct. 2, 2026; on-camera statements of Dean Becker and Jonathan Kendrick (Oct. 9, 2026), transcribed Oct. 14, 2026; Jonathan Kendrick, email to Nicolas Molina Jr. and Kevin Scott (Oct. 19, 2026); ROKiT Drinks, L.L.C. v. Landry’s Inc., No. 23-20506 (5th Cir. Aug. 8, 2025); Able Events Inc. v. Rocket Ball, Ltd., verified complaints (L.A. Super. Ct. March 12, 2026) and No. 2:26-cv-05763 (C.D. Cal.) docket; Rokit World, Inc. v. Rocket Ball, Ltd., No. 3:24-cv-00879 (M.D. Fla.), docket; In re Able Events Inc., No. 2:22-bk-11344 (Bankr. C.D. Cal.); Sportico (Oct. 2022; Jan. 2023); News 3 Las Vegas (April 29, 2025). Washington Post inauguration donor list (washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2025/trump-inauguration-donors-list/); Houston Public Media on the reception (Jan. 15, 2025); Dallas Morning News on the furloughs (March 25, 2020); Houston Public Media on the hearing (April 1, 2025); TrueHoop, “Fertitta family history,” quoting Texas Monthly.
This is an opinion article.