SNOQUALMIE – A legal dispute that threatened to throw a wrench into the Snoqualmie Tribe’s plans for a casino near North Bend has been settled.

Arizona-based investors partnering with the Tribe to build and manage the planned $70-million casino filed for bankruptcy last week, jeopardizing the funding for the casino.

The bankruptcy filing was prompted by a dispute between two business partners feuding over ownership of the two companies investing in the casino, MGU and MGU Development.

A settlement reached last Wednesday confirmed that the owner of the MGU companies is Jerry Moyes, who has invested nearly $12 million in the casino project.

“For us, this just means we can focus on the real effort at hand without any distraction,” said Matt Mattson, tribal administrator.

For five years the Tribe has been planning a 147,000-square-foot casino on 56 acres just to the west of North Bend.

The casino would include at least 460 video slot machines and 54 gaming tables, plus three restaurants, gift stores and a multipurpose room for live entertainment and conferences.

The Tribe continues to work with the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, which has yet to grant approval to designate the 56-acre site as reservation land, Mattson said.

This story was first published in the King County Journal.