A civil lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) against disgraced casino mogul Steve Wynn pushing for him to register as an agent of the Chinese government has been dismissed by a federal judge.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Wednesday that District Judge James Boasberg’s 20-page order found that the DOJ could not compel Wynn to register as a foreign agent because any relationship he may have had with China ended in 2017. The order did not address, however, whether or not Wynn had indeed been operating as a foreign agent at the time.
The DOJ filed its lawsuit in May alleging Wynn acted as an agent of the Chinese government by making requests on its behalf to Donald Trump when Trump was President.
It specifically claimed that Wynn asked Trump, at the behest of China, to deport a Chinese national who was seeking asylum in the United States. Businessman Guo Wengui fled to the US in 2014 after being accused of bribery and sexual assault.
The lawsuit had been seeking to force Wynn to register as an agent of the Chinese government under the Foreign Agents Registration Act after he refused to do so on three separate occasions in 2018, 2021 and 2022.
Commenting on the lawsuit being dismissed, Wynn’s lawyers Reid Weingarten and Robert Luskin said, “We are delighted that the District Court today dismissed the government’s ill-conceived lawsuit against Steve Wynn. Mr Wynn never acted as an agent of the Chinese government and never lobbied on its behalf.”
Wynn, now aged 80, stepped down as Chairman and CEO of Wynn Resorts in early 2018 over sexual misconduct allegations and sold off his entire 12.1% stake in the company.
Aside from its US assets, Wynn Resorts operates two integrated resorts in Macau, Wynn Macau and Wynn Palace, under its majority-owned subsidiary, Wynn Macau Ltd.
