An evidentiary hearing being conducted in Las Vegas in an ongoing lawsuit against Las Vegas Sands subsidiary Sands China Ltd. has led to possible sanctions against the operator.
The hearing, in connection with a 2001 wrongful termination lawsuit filed by former Sands Macau President Steven Jacobs, has led Las Vegas District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez to consider sanctions against Sands China for redacting personal information from around 2,600 documents produced in connection with the lawsuit.
Gonzalez previously ruled that Sands China violated her September 2012 order in the case by redacting the information. Last week, she began to take testimony to determine what, if any, sanctions to impose on the operator.
Jacobs sued LVS and Sands China for breach of contract in relation to his termination, and requested the judge order delivery of more than 100,000 emails and other documents to show how decisions on Sands China were controlled by LVS officials in Las Vegas. Among the documents were alleged evidence that LVS Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson has personally approved a “prostitution strategy” for Macau. Adelson and the company have vehemently denied this allegation.
Jacobs’ lawyers have charged LVS with concealing internal information related to his tenure at Sands China, and that Sands China should face “substantial evidentiary and monetary sanctions.”
“Sands China’s failure to introduce the best and strongest evidence available entitles this court to presume that the missing witnesses and evidence would be adverse to Sands China,” they wrote in a brief.
David Fleming, general counsel for Sands China, testified via videoconference that Macau’s data protection law required him to have personal information redacted from the documents. “At the end of the day, I came to the conclusion that I could no, under any circumstances, breach Macau law,” Fleming testified.
