“I just feel sorry for the Riviera for getting involved with him,” Cimino said. “It’s going to be a disaster.”

He said he will be hiring a lawyer to both stop the Las Vegas opening and get him paid the 20 percent of the franchise he was promised. Cimino said Flav never registered the franchise, name or logo, and that they signed only a simple contract.

The restaurant opened Jan. 24, with the rapper entertaining the mayor and members of the Chamber of Commerce at the ribbon cutting. Lines of customers stretched for blocks in Clinton, a city of 26,000 that received national media exposure.

Trouble first began to surface when employees claimed their paychecks bounced. Cimino said it was a computer glitch with the account.

“How ... does Flavor Flav even know what’s going on when he’s in Vegas and I’m here?” Cimino said. “He just wants to get on TV and handle (stuff) that he doesn’t know anything about. He made himself look like an ass.”

Cimino also alleges that the rapper engaged in illegal activities while on the premises.