INDIANAPOLIS | The Indiana Supreme Court agreed Thursday to review state Attorney General Steve Carter's attempt to pry open the books of a politically connected East Chicago developer that has reaped $16 million in local casino subsidies.

"The public deserves to know what happened to this money," Carter said Friday in a statement. "There is little evidence that these funds, intended for economic development, have not been wasted."

Carter so far has struck out in his attempts to order a public accounting of the casino cash that East Chicago Second Century, a for-profit firm, received through a 1994 economic development deal then-Mayor Robert Pastrick brokered to bring riverboat gambling to his lakefront city.

The company, run by Pastrick allies Thomas Cappas and Michael Pannos, was created to help revitalize the struggling steel town.

But Cappas and Pannos instead enriched themselves and family members by taking "enormous" salaries, according to a partially redacted state investigation The Times obtained last year.

Carter contends that the $2 million annual casino subsidy to Second Century was created to foster a public good and that the company therefore should be forced to make public its finances. The Indiana Court of Appeals and a Marion County judge have rejected that argument.

Attorneys for Second Century maintain that their clients, as managers of a private business, are under no legal obligation to open their books.

The Supreme Court has not set a schedule for arguments in the case.