The former owner of part of the Everett land where Wynn Resorts is building a casino is suing, saying the company reneged a handshake deal that would've secured him more than $18 million when the sale went through.

Anthony Gattineri, who is suing for breach of contract and fraud, says his federal suit filed Tuesday is the result of Wynn Resorts' "calculated refusal to honor their contract."

Gattineri, who lives in Florida, said he has a 46 percent stake of FBT Everett Realty, LLC. This is the company which previously owned the land where the $2.5 billion casino is being built in Everett.

He says that top Wynn executive Robert DeSalvio flew to San Diego, where Gattineri was visiting family, and offered him more than $18 million in exchange for his signature on a certificate for the Gaming Commission in June 2014.

The men "shook hands on the agreement" but did not put it on paper at DeSalvio's request, according to the suit.

"Mr. DeSalvio declined saying that Wynn, as a casino operator, is 'more regulated than the nuclear power industry.' Mr. DeSalvio, however, told Mr. Gattineri not to worry, that Wynn had many ways in which it could make Mr. Gattineri whole through other projects and developments," Gattineri says in the suit.

This meeting - Gattineri says - was ordered by Wynn after the landowner refused to sign paperwork crucial to casino deal.

On Dec. 19 2012 FBT and Wynn entered an Option Agreement that would allow Wynn to purchase the property for $75 million if it won the Massachusetts casino license. Wynn "seized upon" the Massachusetts Gaming Commission's "unfounded concerns" that FBT had more than the three owners disclosed to lower the price down to $45 million.

In 2014, Gattineri was arrested and charged in relation to the sale of the property to Wynn. Prosecutors alleged that he, Dustin DeNunzio and Charles Lightbody tried to hide Lightbody's financial involvement in the deal. Lightbody is a convicted felon.

All three men were acquitted in 2016.

Ahead of the sale, the Gaming Commission required Wynn "to submit to it separate

Certificates from each individual FBT owner/member certifying, under oath, their ownership in FBT for themselves only and no other persons or entities," according to the suit. This gave Gattineri, who is only a partial owner, more power.

Gattineri refused to sign off arguing the property was worth more. This was dubbed "The Gattineri Problem" by Wynn, according to the suit. Gattineri said the company threatened to "ruin him financially through the filing and prosecution of personal multi-million dollar civil lawsuits against him if he did not sign the Certificate."

He says Wynn dispatched DeSalvio to San Diego to do "whatever it takes" to get the signature. DeSalvio offered him his "percentage of the purchase price reduction" - $18,676,000 - for signing the certificate. Gattineri agreed.

He says former Massachusetts Governor William Weld, who was working as a lawyer on the deal, also threatened him.

"Not long after such threats, multiple stories were published by various media outlets that were clearly adverse to Mr. Gattineri," the suit reads. Gattineri also connects his indictment to Wynn's supposed scheme.

Greg John, a spokesman for the Encore Boston Harbor casino project, told the Boston Globe the suit was "an attempt to now extract an additional multi-million-dollar payment from our company beyond what was negotiated and accepted by Mr. Gattineri and his partners in the Everett land transaction."

He said Wynn's agreement with Gattineri ended years ago.

"Mr. Gattineri's claim that a publicly-traded company in a highly-regulated industry would execute a $20 million transaction on a handshake deal, without any documentation or paperwork, is implausible and will be vigorously defended by Wynn," he told the newspaper. "We have notified the Massachusetts Gaming Commission of the claim."

Gattineri is asking the court for $56 million, plus legal fees -- more than three times the amount of the original deal. He says this incorporates interest.

The company expects to open the Encore Boston Harbor casino along the Mystic River in Everett in June 2019.

Wynn Resorts dropped the Wynn name after Steve Wynn resigned in February. This after The Wall Street Journal reported sexual misconduct complaints that were ignored by management, according to the newspaper.