Miriam Adelson, wife of the late Las Vegas Sands founder Sheldon Adelson, has been appointed executor of the billionaire’s estate, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Adelson died on January 11 at the age of 87.
The appointment was made on June 3. Mrs. Adelson has voting control over almost 399 million shares, or 52.2 percent, of Las Vegas Sands Corp., according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The shares are worth around $22 billion.
Adelson founded the Sands Corp. in 1988 and served as chairman and CEO of the company throughout his life. It became the world’s largest gaming corporation. Adelson had the foresight to buy the old Sands Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip and replace it with the Venetian, Palazzo and Sands Expo and Convention Center. He expanded integrated resorts into Macau and Singapore.
The company announced in March that it was selling its Las Vegas assets to affiliates of Apollo Global Management Inc. and Vici Properties Inc. for $6.25 billion in order to focus on foreign investments and opportunities to develop new domestic markets.
Miriam Adelson, 75, will oversee trust funds benefiting the family, the filing said. She and Irvin Chafetz, a longtime business partner of Sheldon Adelson, are co-trustees to some of the other trust funds.
Miriam Adelson married Sheldon Adelson in 1991. Through their family’s foundations, the couple contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to medical research and Jewish and Israeli causes. Adelson was also a strong supporter of former President Donald Trump, and was an outspoken opponent of online gambling.
