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Casino tycoon Wynn defeats U.S. lawsuit over Chinese agent claims

October 12, 2022 at 10:51 am EDT

(Reuters) - Casino magnate Steve Wynn cannot be ordered to register with the U.S. Department of Justice as a foreign agent of China, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., said Wednesday.

The Justice Department in May sued for a court order forcing Wynn, the former CEO of Wynn Casinos, to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Officials alleged that Wynn lobbied then-U.S. President Donald Trump on China's behalf in 2017. Wynn's attorneys denied that he was ever an agent of the Chinese government.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said Wednesday that, because any relationship between Wynn and the Chinese government ended in 2017, the GOP donor cannot be required to register as an agent. The judge pointed to past precedent in D.C. federal court in making the ruling.

The judge said he was not determining whether Wynn had lobbied on China's behalf. He also said the Justice Department could pursue criminal sanctions against Wynn for failing to disclose the alleged lobbying, if the statute of limitations had not expired.

Wynn's lawyers and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Jacqueline Thomsen in Washington; Editing by David Bario and Louise Heavens)

By Jacqueline Thomsen

Steve Wynn

Stephen Alan "Steve" Wynn (born January 27, 1942) is an American business magnate. He played a pivotal role in the 1990s resurgence and expansion of the Las Vegas Strip. His companies refurbished or built what are now widely recognized resorts in Las Vegas, including the Golden Nugget, The Mirage, Treasure Island, Bellagio, Wynn, and Encore.

Now, as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Wynn Resorts, Limited, Wynn has developed Wynn Las Vegas, which opened on April 28, 2005; Wynn Macau, which opened in September 2006; Encore at Wynn Las Vegas, which opened December 22, 2008; and Encore at Wynn Macau, which opened on April 21, 2010.

As of June 2014, Wynn is the 428th richest man in the world with a net worth of $4 billion. Wynn was raised in Utica, New York, and graduated from The Manlius School, a private boys' school east of Syracuse, New York, in 1959. Steve Wynn studied cultural anthropology and English literature at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity.

In 1963, his father died of complications from open heart surgery in Minneapolis, leaving $350,000 of gaming debts, shortly before Wynn graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature.

Career

Frontier and the Golden Nugget
Wynn took over running the family's bingo operation in Maryland. His success allowed him to invest in a small stake for the Frontier Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where he and his wife, Elaine, moved in 1967. Between 1968 and 1972 he also owned and operated a wine and liquor importing company. He managed to parlay his profits from a land deal in 1971 (the deal involved Howard Hughes and Caesars Palace) into a controlling interest in the landmark downtown casino, the Golden Nugget Las Vegas (he would later open the Golden Nugget Atlantic City in Atlantic City, New Jersey). Wynn renovated, revamped and expanded the Golden Nugget from a gambling hall to a resort hotel and casino with enormous success, in the process attracting a new upscale clientele to downtown Las Vegas. Frank Sinatra was a headliner at the Golden Nugget. Wynn maintains a relationship with Sinatra family, and named a restaurant at Encore “Sinatra”.

Source @ Wikipedia

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