After a multi-year legal battle, Wynn Resorts Ltd. has settled with nine women who were part of a 2019 sexual harassment lawsuit that accused the company’s namesake and former CEO Steve Wynn of repeated sexual misconduct. Exact details of the settlement were undisclosed.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, attorneys for the company filed the settlement notice on September 5.
All nine women remained anonymous throughout the proceedings, and were referred to in court filings as Jane Does 1 through 9. All of the plaintiffs worked for either the Wynn Salon or Encore Salon, and each alleged that Steve Wynn made inappropriate sexual advancements towards them, including asking sex-related questions and forcing them to massage him in inappropriate areas in private locations.
The 81-year-old Wynn, who now resides in Florida, has publicly denied all sexual allegations brought against him. However, shortly after the allegations were made public in a scathing 2018 report from the Wall Street Journal, the casino mogul resigned from his company and sold all of his holdings in the business.
In 2020, the case was dismissed in District Court, citing that the claims were too vague—however, the decision was subsequently reversed by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and sent back down to the lower court.
Per the Review-Journal, the appellate court held that the plaintiffs “expressed a willingness to provide more information, so long as their privacy could be assured,” and even though the women had “no automatic right” to file an amended claim, the lower court “should have granted leave to amend when dismissing claims that could be cured with additional facts.”
This latest settlement comes not long after the embattled billionaire settled with the Nevada Gaming Commission for $10 million in a similar case that also went in and out of court. In addition to the settlement, Wynn agreed to withdraw permanently from all Nevada gaming operations.
He also paid another, more secretive settlement of $7.5 million to one specific female employee, a former manicurist. Ultimately, Wynn’s company paid the steepest price of all, having paid $20 million in fines to regulators back in 2019 for failing to properly investigate employees’ claims.
