Nearly a month after the federal government filed a lawsuit against Clark County and a development company headed by prominent gambler Billy Walters over allegations of millions of dollars of unpaid rent at a major Las Vegas golf course, the county has begun mounting a legal defense.

In a seven-page response to the Department of Justice’s complaint filed on Friday in Nevada District Court, the county essentially disputed a key point of the federal government's argument — that a controversial 2011 amendment to the golf course’s lease ever went into effect.

Attorneys for the county also raised several “affirmative” defenses against the complaint, including that the applicable statute of limitations had lapsed, that the federal government failed to adequately state a claim and that the amended lease never went into effect or became legally binding.

In August, the Department of Justice issued a letter to the county asking for more than $75 million in current and future expected rent on a portion of the land transferred from the federal government to the county in 1998 that currently houses the Bali Hai golf course.

Federal government officials took action over allegations that the county failed to follow through on a contractual agreement to assess and lease the land at “fair market value,” and that an amended lease agreed to between the county and Walters in 2011 would shortchange the government out of millions of dollars in expected rent revenue.

Although the original arrangement between Walters and the county was set at a rent price of 40 percent of “net proceeds” from golf course profits, county commissioners approved modifying the lease in 2011 to change the terms of the rent and rezone the property to allow for industrial development.

The golf course itself has failed to ever generate a profit since being built in 2000, though critics have said the original lease allowed Walters favorable latitude in what could be declared as an expense. Walters was sentenced to five years in prison in July over a $43 million insider trading scheme.

The response is relatively light on detail, and merely lists specific paragraphs of the Department of Justice’s initial complaint where the county agrees and disagrees with allegations raised — primarily to reiterate that the county’s denial that the 2011 amendment to the lease ever went into effect.

Clark County Response Bali Hai by Riley Snyder on Scribd