New London developers Yehuda Amar and Michael Barlow and a third defendant face 30 felony counts stemming from an investigation into bribery, obtaining property under false pretenses and tax evasion at Rhode Island’s Twin River Casino.

A Rhode Island grand jury returned indictments on Dec. 12 alleging that Amar, a casino vendor, paid bribes to Barlow, senior vice president of operations at Twin River, as a reward for securing subleases with multiple food court vendors as well as multiple business contracts.

“The crimes alleged in the indictment not only harm legitimate business owners, but hurt the business climate in our state,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha said in a statement. “Illicit deals and the crimes alleged disadvantage those businesses who play by the rules and create an unfair competitive playing field. I appreciate the hard work of the Rhode Island State Police and their partnership during this investigation.”

The indictments allege Barlow recruited Amar in 2007 to open a Haagen-Dazs ice cream shop in the Twin River casino food court. Later, in 2012, Barlow and Amar purchased several residential and commercial properties in New London. Amar has achieved a high profile rehabbing downtown New London properties as high-end housing.

Barlow incurred $340,000 in debt to Amar through the purchase and renovation of their New London properties, Neronha’s office said, after which Barlow used his position as senior vice president of operations at Twin River Worldwide Holdings Inc to steer vendors and business contracts to Amar. In exchange, Barlow received debt relief from 2012 until 2014.

Barlow is charged with four counts of accepting a bribe, three counts of obtaining property under false pretenses, three counts of conspiracy to obtain property under false pretenses and two counts of casino gaming crimes and providing false information.

Amar is charged with four counts of bribery, three counts of obtaining property under false pretenses, three counts of conspiracy to obtain property under false pretenses, six counts of failure to file corporate tax, four counts of filing a fraudulent personal income tax return and one count of failing to file a personal income tax return.

Amar’s business associate Jill Feldman is also charged with three counts of failure to file corporate tax, two counts of filing a fraudulent personal income tax return and one count of failure to file a personal income tax return.