Wynn Resorts will have to answer Elaine Wynn’s complaint seeking control of her shares during a February trial, Clark County (Nevada) District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez ruled last week.
Gonzalez denied Wynn Resort’s motion seeking to sever Elaine Wynn’s lawsuit to gain control of her Wynn Resorts shares from a separate lawsuit filed by former shareholder Kazuo Okada.
Elaine Wynn owns $900 million worth of shares in Wynn Resorts, but her divorce agreement with Wynn Resorts Chairman and CEO Stephen Wynn limits her ability to sell or control them.
Wynn Resorts’ attorney James Pisanelli sought to sever Elaine Wynn’s complaint from Okada’s, saying she is trying to “hijack” the case in order to obtain new divorce terms.
Elaine Wynn says Okada brokered the deal. Now that he no longer is a shareholder, she says the deal is off.
In his complaint, Okada, a Japanese businessman, accuses Wynn Resorts of paying $135 million the University of Macau to circumvent the U.S. bribery laws.
Okada says Wynn Resorts allocated the money to the university at the same time the company is looking to open the $4 billion Wynn Palace resort this year.
Wynn Resorts in turn accuses Okada of paying $110,000 to gaming regulators in the Philippines in order to buy property on which a casino is to be built.
In opposing the motion to sever, Elaine Wynn says Wynn Resorts and Stephen Wynn “are clearly embarrassed by what they know the jury will hear, and hope to limit all such exposure.”
Elaine Wynn says that avoidance of exposure includes canceling two depositions of Stephen Wynn on short notice, while trying to portray her as hijacking and disrupting the civil proceedings.
Elaine Wynn says she seeks “no more than the fundamental right to control her own property” and wants to ensure “her largest assets are being competently and ethically managed.”
Elaine Wynn says she has concerns about how Wynn Resorts is run but was “punished” for voicing her concerns. Those concerns include what she calls reckless and improper behavior by Stephen Wynn and a lack of oversight by Wynn Resorts management team and its board of directors.
Okada’s attorney, Stephen Peek, told the Las Vegas Review Journal Elaine Wynn’s claims mirror those made by Okada. Specifically, that Stephen Wynn and the board punish anyone voicing dissenting opinions.
The denial by Gonzalez now means the trial remains scheduled as planned.
