A case nearly five years in the making has taken another twist, as District Judge Elisabeth Gonzalez has ordered hefty sanctions against Sands China Ltd. for their withholding of documents from the wrongful termination case of Steven Jacobs. Gonzalez has ordered attorneys to pay 0,000 to various legal charities and surrender the documents in question.
According to Todd Bice, Jacobs’ lawyer, Gonzalez was simply “leveling the playing field” with the penalties. The 2010 termination of Jacobs, he feels, was a breach of contract, and in turn, has asked the defendant to hand in roughly 100,000 emails in addition to other documents.
Las Vegas Sands chairman and CEO, Sheldon Adelson, allegedly approved a “prostitution strategy” in Macau, which Adelson and Sands vehemently deny. In 2012, Gonzalez ruled neither defendant would be allowed to cite the Macau Personal Data Protection Act to object to disclosure of any documents.
It was found that the data, roughly 8,000 of the 100,000 emails, in addition to other files, had been exported by Sands China to the US so its Nevada-based attorneys could comb through them, which cost the company $2.4 million in legal fees. Gonzales determined nine separate hearings regarding the documents were “needless” and punished the defendants accordingly.
Steve Wynn has been involved in a court case of his own, accusing American hedge fund manager Jim Chanos of slander after comments made at an invitation-only symposium at University of California at Berkeley in April 2014. According to Wynn, Chanos referred to the company as being in violation of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act with its activities in Macau.
It was determined however, that anything Chanos said was clearly an opinion, and not a fact, leading to the case being thrown out, with Wynn required to pay Chanos’ legal expenses. On the flip side, Wynn is in the process of collecting a gambling debt from former owner of the Girls Gone Wild company, Joe Francis.
The company was sold to a Liquidity Capital-led investment group last April for $1.8 million. A bankruptcy court ruled last week proceeds of the sale will go towards creditors of the company, including Wynn.
