On September 22, 2000, in secret, Abramoff convinced Boulis to accept promissory notes for $20 million in exchange for a secret 10 percent interest in the newly reorganized SunCruz Casinos. The deal was doubly illegal: Abramoff and his partners were violating the terms of their purchase agreement with their financiers which required that they put up $23 million of their own money, and Boulis was violating the terms of his settlement with the government, which required that he separate himself entirely from his company.