No longer is it just a personal vendetta between Steve Wynn and Kazuo Okada. It’s become a much larger event that has launched lawsuits from shareholders and a wide range of ambulance-chasing law firms.
In late March, the Louisiana Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement System, a Wynn shareholder in its pension plan, filed suit against the company for “allowing Wynn Resorts to engage in a waste of corporate assets and to allow potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCAP) from at least 2009 to the present.” The group contends that Wynn’s $135 million donation to the University of Macau puts the company in danger of federal prosecution, thereby devaluing the company’s shares.
The group sued all 12 board members and said that “regardless of who ultimately prevails in the Wynn Resorts boardroom battle, it is the company that has, and will, lose the most.”
The next week, two more shareholder lawsuits were launched, citing the same complaints as the Louisiana group. The Boilermakers Lodge No. 154 Retirement Fund, based in Pennsylvania, and shareholder Danny Hinson, a South Carolina resident, both filed suit in U.S. District Court of Nevada.
