In a 30-day radio ad campaign this month and a letter to Governor Brian Sandoval, the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 is calling on Nevada gaming regulators to enforce the highest ethical standards for the state’s most important industry.
The Culinary Union is concerned that Deutsche Bank has not gone through the state’s non-restricted licensing process or a suitability review for its 25 percent ownership stake, through a subsidiary, in Station Casinos.
The union raised these concerns earlier this summer after another subsidiary of the foreign bank pleaded guilty to criminal wire fraud and the bank paid record fines in the LIBOR scandal of $2.52 billion to U.S. and British regulatory authorities for its role in rigging global benchmark interest rates.
In addition to the bank’s admitted misconduct, there are ongoing internal investigations and scrutiny by U.S. and foreign regulators and prosecutors of the bank’s activities, including possible money laundering through the bank by Russian clients, rigging of foreign exchange rates and violation of U.S. laws.
In a letter to Sandoval, the Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer Geoconda Arguello-Kline wrote: “There should not be a two-tiered system of justice in Nevada; one in which rich and powerful corporations get a pass from gaming regulators, while low-level offenders undergo grueling and rigorous review and get ousted from the industry.”
“We have sent letters to the Gaming Commission and Control Board outlining our concerns. We have received no official response,” said Culinary Union Research Director Maya Holmes.
“The public has a right to know whether the parent company of a felon that has been accused of lying to regulators, dragging its feet during investigations and is the subject of at least three unresolved criminal investigations is suitable to own 19 Nevada casinos.”
