Attorneys for Las Vegas Sands and founder Sheldon Adelson are accused of using delaying tactics and legal tricks to delay a wrongful termination by former Sands China CEO Steven Jacobs.
“The defendants in this action have repeatedly sought to delay this case and have made clear they will do anything, no matter how lacking in legal support, to try and sabotage Jacobs’ rights to trial,” attorney Todd Bice wrote in support of an emergency motion that would stop Las Vegas Sands from delaying the trial for up to five years.
Jacobs says Adelson and Las Vegas Sands fired him in 2010 after refusing to engage in illegal activities and corruption to improve business prospects in Macau, including bribing local officials, while Las Vegas Sands was building its gaming operations there.
A trial is scheduled to start June 27, but Adelson and Las Vegas Sands in mid January filed a motion that seeks to remove trial Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez, whom Las Vegas Sands accuses of being biased against it.
Las Vegas Sands has tried three times to have Gonzalez removed, with no success, and the Nevada Supreme Court last year ruled Clark County is the proper venue for the complaint, because that is where Las Vegas Sands is headquartered and makes it hiring and firing decisions.
Las Vegas Sands argues Nevada courts have no jurisdiction in a matter that occurred in Macau, and continually accuses Gonzalez of bias against it, setting up a likely appeal of any negative result in the case.
In its latest effort to remove Gonzalez, Las Vegas Sands argues “intensified” media coverage is affecting how Gonzalez is handling the case, and the court has become a contributor to the coverage.
Adelson, via a media holding company, in December paid more than $140 million to buy the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which soon after assigned several reporters to more closely cover Gonzalez.
Gonzalez contends she is not biased against Las Vegas Sands, Adelson, or other defendants in the action, and the court has affirmed her neutrality three times, thus far.
Clark County Chief District Judge David Baker said he will rule on the latest effort to remove Gonzalez by February 4.
And in another case, Las Vegas Sands is getting another shot at vacating a prior $115 million judgment against it as a Nevada court retries a contract employment action against it.
Plaintiff Richard Suen claims Las Vegas Sands owes him money for helping to facilitate the casino company’s expansion into the Macau gaming market, and he won two judgments.
Clark County Judge Michelle Leavitt in 2008 awarded $43.8 million to Suen, of Hong Kong, but the Nevada Supreme Court ruled Leavitt admitted too much hearsay evidence and vacated the ruling in 2010.
A second trial in 2013 resulted in a $70 million judgment against Las Vegas Sands, plus attorney’s fees and legal costs, for a total judgment of $115 million. Suen first sued Las Vegas Sands in 2004, and the legal fees and costs, plus interest, over 12 years generated the high award.
Las Vegas Sands appealed that ruling to the Nevada Supreme Court, which is rehearing the entire matter.
Representing Suen, Las Vegas attorney Todd Bice says Las Vegas Sands has no valid grounds for contesting the most recent ruling and only is trying to avoid paying a large penalty that continues growing as the legal matter drags on.
On behalf of Las Vegas Sands, attorney and legal scholar Alan Dershowitz told the Nevada Supreme Court Las Vegas Sands never obtained a gaming license in Macau and, therefore, Suen is not owed money for helping it to obtain one.
Instead of obtaining a gaming license, Las Vegas Sands partnered with an existing gaming license holder in Macau, which is running the Sands China gaming operations in Macau and sharing the profits.
Bice contends Suen still is owed a fee based on a legal precedent that sets the value of work done, even if a deal isn’t completed.
