Steve Wynn seems to be a name that often appears in the news cycle along with mentions of courts and allegations, and the last few years have really been busy. From allegations of sexual misconduct to being a Chinese agent, Mr. Wynn has been trying hard to clear his name, but a growing list of lawsuits makes that difficult.
Court of Appeals Hearing in December
The Las Vegas Review-Journal (LVRJ) recently reported that the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in California will be hearing oral arguments on the racketeering case against Steve Wynn on December 6 in Long Beach. According to LVRJ’s report, this case is also linked to an old allegation against Wynn, in which a former manager was allegedly intimidated into keeping her silence, following a report she’d submitted to her superiors about an alleged raping of a worker back in 2005. The employee was apparently fired. Since the case was never completely dropped, and Wynn’s decision not to register as an agent through the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) was not completely cleared, the Court of Appeals will be hearing more details on the case to reach a final decision.
The linked intimidation case is not the only sexual assault allegation against Wynn, and it’s definitely not the only case in which improper influence was allegedly used to Wynn’s benefit. The report goes on to explain that this case is tied to a series of other allegations against Wynn, in which older cases were allegedly thrown out because of bribes, or a Wynn lawyer taking a court magistrate position thanks to Wynn Resorts donating money to a Legal Aid Center in Southern Nevada, which had an influential figure as its director to tip the scales in Wynn’s lawyer’s favor.
Wynn Under Series of Allegations, Lawsuits
While Wynn had denied assaulting anyone, and the court agreed that initial press releases were defamatory, similar sexual assault stories still pop up. The first allegation was made by Angelina Mullins, the alleged victim, which claimed that Wynn had ordered female performers to be more sexually appealing when he was attending rehearsals, for example, and the press release in question claimed that the alleged victim was paid $7.5 million. In the end, the well-known #MeToo attorney Lisa Bloom had paid off settlement. This wasn’t the end of these types of cases plaguing Wynn, however, just last month Brenna Schrader – a massage therapist at Wynn Resorts – filed a lawsuit for alleged sexual misconduct. This is not the first time Schrader is trying to sue Wynn Resorts’ former CEO.
Of course, sexual misconduct is not the be-all and end-all when it comes to Wynn’s lawsuits. This was one of the main reasons why Wynn Resorts actually distanced itself from Wynn and why he stepped down as CEO. Albeit the company has undergone some significant internal changes, including management changes, this doesn’t mean that alleged past wrongdoings just disappear. His stepping down and the complete disconnect from the company that followed, however, have caused some controversy about whether Nevada’s gaming regulators – the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) and the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) – have jurisdiction over Wynn. Following the Nevada Supreme Court decision, the disgraced casino mogul will have to appear before Nevada’s regulators for new hearing. Wynn hasn’t lost a single misdemeanor case yet, however, and has been trying to clear his name, but the cases seem to just keep piling on.