By Kate O’Keeffe
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Macau casino operator Sands China Ltd. (1928.HK) said Hong Kong’s securities regulator will not take action against the company after concluding an investigation of it, clearing one of several regulatory hurdles facing U.S. parent Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS)
The company said in a Sunday statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange that it had on Dec. 15 received confirmation from the Securities and Futures Commission “that the investigation has been concluded and that no further action will be taken against the Company at this time.” It didn’t elaborate. A representative for the SFC declined to comment.
Sands China said in March that the SFC had asked the company to produce documents for an investigation into alleged breaches of the Securities and Futures Ordinance. Neither the company nor the regulator has disclosed the nature of the investigation. David Webb, a prominent shareholder activist in Hong Kong, said earlier that the main focus for companies regarding the Securities and Futures Ordinance is the issue of filing false or misleading statements to the stock exchange.
Las Vegas Sands remains under investigation by U.S. federal and state regulators. The company said in March it had received a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requesting that it produce documents related to its compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and that the Justice Department was conducting a similar investigation. The Nevada Gaming Control Board said it has also initiated an investigation into the matter. The law prohibits U.S. companies from making payments to foreign officials to get or keep business.
An internal memo from the general counsel for Las Vegas Sands Corp. reviewed by The Wall Street Journal shows that Las Vegas Sands is seeking to secure a list of government officials who have gambled at the company’s Macau casinos, indicating a possible focus of the U.S. government’s bribery investigation into the company.
The U.S. gambling giant said it believed the subpoena stemmed from allegations in a wrongful-termination lawsuit filed last October against the company by its former head of Macau operations, Steve Jacobs. In the case, filed in a Nevada court against Las Vegas Sands and its Macau subsidiary, Jacobs accuses the company of wrongfully terminating his employment because he wouldn’t comply with what he says were illegal demands from his boss, Las Vegas Sands Chief Executive Sheldon Adelson. Las Vegas Sands has denied the allegations.
Among its claims, the suit accuses Adelson of ordering Jacobs to use “improper leverage” against senior Macau government officials to help the company secure rights to sell apartments at its Four Seasons property.
Further, the suit accuses Adelson of insisting Jacobs withhold information from Sands China’s board about “material financial events, corporate governance and corporate independence,” preventing it from having a chance to rule on whether such information should be disclosed to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
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