At a December 10 hearing in Clark County District Court, Judge Ronald Israel will rule on a bid by Wynn Resorts to throw out a civil conspiracy lawsuit filed by hairstylist Jorgen Nielsen. The ex-beauty salon director says company executives invaded his privacy and spied on him in 2017 after he spoke publicly about sexual misconduct allegations against Steve Wynn, then chairman and CEO of the company.
The suit was filed in October against Wynn Resorts, company chief Matt Maddox and two former top officials.
According to the Associated Press, Wynn does not deny responsibility for a person Nielsen identified as an “undercover operative” who posed as a customer after Nielsen moved to another job at another resort. But Wynn Resorts says Nielsen wasn’t harmed.
Nielsen doesn’t say the person lied to him, used “surreptitious methods,” entered a private location, “or even gathered any meaningful information,” the company court filing said. Nielsen also “does not allege the interaction cost him his job, diminished his income or had any other effect on him or his employment,” the company said.
The document also accuses Nielsen of providing contact information for key Wynn Resorts employees to Steve Wynn’s ex-wife, Elaine Wynn, before Wall Street Journal reporters used the information ahead of a January 2018 report alleging sexual wrongdoing by Steve Wynn.
Elaine Wynn, now the largest individual shareholder in Wynn Resorts, said in a statement that she “never engaged with reporters from the Wall Street Journal” and declined to speak with reporters who said in their report they contacted more than 150 people who worked or had worked for Steve Wynn.
The Journal reported that corporate action was not taken despite complaints by female employees accusing Wynn of harassing or assaulting them, including one case that led to a $7.5 million settlement.
Steve Wynn himself, who resigned from the company he founded in February 2018, has denied all allegations against him and is not a defendant in Nielsen’s lawsuit.
The lawsuit maintains that “high-level hotel and corporate executives” were complicit in “ignoring, enabling, facilitating, tolerating and them covering up that misconduct,” Nielsen’s lawsuit said.
Wynn Resorts, which owns the Wynn Las Vegas and Encore resorts on the Las Vegas Strip, has cited Maddox’s testimony before Massachusetts regulators that the company did not authorize “inappropriate surveillance activity.”
Meanwhile, lawyers for Steve Wynn responded to the Nevada Gaming Control Board, which recently filed a motion to ban Wynn for life from the Nevada industry and potentially fine him millions of dollars.
In a letter to the board, Wynn attorney Don Campbell claimed that the board could not ban or punish Wynn because he no longer holds a license in Nevada and is not subject to the board’s control.
“Such a draconian concept of lifetime jurisdiction is found nowhere in the statutes or regulations relied upon by the NGCB,” Campbell wrote. “It is clear the Nevada legislature neither expressly nor implicitly authorized the commission and NGCB to discipline persons who no longer have any involvement with gaming licensees.”
Campbell did say that Wynn would pledge not to re-enter the Nevada industry, however.
“Mr. Wynn continues to be willing to enter into a stipulated agreement that he will not return to Nevada’s gaming industry,” wrote Campbell, “and that any attempt to do so would constitute a new application for which the board could recommend denial, and the commission could adopt that recommendation.”
There has been no immediate response from the NGCB.
