The Massachusetts Gaming Commission’s appointment of an independent monitor to make sure that Wynn Resorts’ Encore Boston Harbor is abiding by rules and policies regarding sexual harassment will cost the company up to $775,000 during the first six months, according to a contract the panel ratified last week.
Under the agreement with the MGC, Wynn will pay for the monitor that the commission hired, the law firm Miller & Chevalier Chartered.
Wynn spokesman Michael Weaver commented, “We look forward to working cooperatively with the MGC’s selected monitor and reviewing the significant changes in compliance and human resources programs we have implemented in the past 18 months.”
The monitor was one of several conditions that the MGC attached in April when it allowed Wynn to keep its license to operate the Boston area casino in Everett. The commission also required the company to pay a $35.5 million fine and personally fined CEO Matt Maddox $500,000. The panel found that the company didn’t do enough when some executives were aware that founder and former CEO Steve Wynn had, among other things, paid $7.5 million in hush money to an employee who claimed he raped her and got her pregnant. Wynn has denied all accusations of sexual harassment.
The commission named Chairman Cathy Judd-Stein as contract manager and liaison between the law firm and commission.
The leader of the law firm, Alejandra Montenegro Almonte, told the commission that her team won’t reinvestigate old allegations, but will review policies and procedures that have been put in place since Maddox replaced Wynn as chief executive officer and since old board members were jettisoned and new ones, including several women, were added.
She told the panel, “We’re not looking at specific elements. We don’t come with a checklist. We’re not looking at a litany of policies that we want to make sure are in place. We take a very broad approach. We want to understand how the different parts of the company work together to ensure a culture that is focused on compliance.”
